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[spankyham]

If Fernando was shedualed to drive both days of this test ?
why did they use Kimi's chassis

Good question, I doubt there's a driver specific chassis, it's more like "their car" in that it has their seat on it. Other than that, I'm sure they're identical in construction.

Maybe they specifically wanted to find a benchmark of sorts?

That's actually a very good question Ichabod. The process of making a chassis is rather complicated. Each driver gets new chassis a few times a year. And each chassis, because they are made at different times, has different ages. So, in this case, they probably chose to use the chassis best suited to their rotation.

The problem, as I understand it from yesterday was, if you recall, Kimi damaged his chassis in practice. The team repaired that, however, yesterday, they found additional damage which they attributed to the original incident and deemed it best to not practice further with that damage. Fernando's chassis would already be in Maranello. As an aside, in Ferrari, since 1970, each chassis generally has a successive consecutive number.

[spankyham]

I would have thought that they would have got a lot more data from the chassis that Fernando had driven all weekend and set up
rather than starting from scratch ?

The chassis's are the same. In fact, they have to be as they are homologated.

[CookinFlat6]

Just had a thought about Ferraris problem this year specifically

Its common knowledge that words and names have power. Its said that if you name a man 'Rocky' he will behave like a rock etc etc

Whose idea was it to call Ferraris 2014 car Fiat?

Whoever it was should be sacked. Or maybe promoted for providing this years excuse. It was the Tifosi?

Before anyone starts weeping, this is a joke but with a real question behind it, maybe the whole conception of the 2014 car was too 'showbiz' with the brand in mind more than pure performance

[Jabberwocky]

The Fans voted for the name!

Seb names all his cars girls names... what does that mean?

Sent using NCC-1701

[Ichabod]

The Fans voted for the name!

Seb names all his cars girls names... what does that mean?

Sent using NCC-1701

He likes to be inside girls ?

[CookinFlat6]

Very interesting article by a Ferrari insider that illustrates the scale of the problem, it also sheds light on the recent suggestion that Flavio is been courted as TP. It could be that Montezemolo is facing pressure within Fiat. I have bolded the important bits

Fears for Ferrari
All in, it's hard to see how last Sunday could have gone worse for Ferrari.

Much of the Scuderia's royalty was in attendance for the Bahrain Grand Prix; Luca Montezemolo, Piero Lardi Ferrari, Claudio Lombardi, in a region that is a highly important market for the organisation's road cars. An F1 race has its uses as a shop window.

And in Montezemolo's case he was there also so that he could don his political hat, to circulate the place conspicuously and state his view to anyone that would listen that the new spec F1 was potentially cataclysmic to the sport's health and that urgent change was required. A reminder that Ferrari remains as willing as ever to take a holistic approach to getting results; fighting its battles both off-track and on (for all that he protested otherwise Montezemolo wouldn't have argued for change unless he thought it would benefit his team's competitiveness).

The problem was what happened where it really matters. Out on the circuit. There, the Ferraris were simply brick slow. And the problem moreover was where they were brick slow, rather unusually for the red cars it was on the straights that they were losing out; time after time it seemed the Mercedes powered machines took metres out of them in the extended sections wherein the loud pedal could be deployed on full noise. The Sakhir layout could have been designed to show such a problem up mercilessly, and it did.

Having lost position to Nico Hulkenberg's Force India early on, which cruised past the Ferrari like it was parked, each syllable of Fernando Alonso's words on the team radio - and transmitted on the TV world feed for all of our benefits - must have felt like repeated punches in the stomach for the team: 'We don’t have the power to keep him behind' (and to emphasise the fact as he said it so the feed cut to Montezemolo in the pit garage, looking rather like one chewing on a razor blade).

You may think that Ferrari's been off the pace for a while, so what's new? Well, there are plenty reasons to think that things are much more perilous for all concerned this time, and not just because the clock is ticking since the team's last championship (the constructors' crown of 2008). In previous years the team had lost out in an aero battle, mainly to Red Bull. That's one thing, as down Maranello way few pulses are quickened by aerodynamics. Engines however are something else; those have always been the real badge of honour for Ferrari ever since the freshman days of the Commendatore Enzo Ferrari. And this time it's losing out in an engine battle. On the evidence of Bahrain it's seriously losing out in it.

And Ferrari is facing the seemingly irrefutable fact that Mercedes - a rival manufacturer of performance cars - has taken the same new set of rules, started with the same blank sheet of paper, at the same time, if anything with less in the way of resource and facilities (Ferrari of course is aided by an ultra-generous financial deal with Bernie) and cleanly leapt ahead having done a markedly better job. Further this new formula was supposed to suit the Scuderia, indeed the V6 element was brought in late in the day pretty much exclusively at Ferrari's behest.

Even the diverting nature of the race was in its way bad news; shooting as it did the fox that Montezemolo (among others) was doing his best to set loose that the sport this year wasn't serving up entertainment. Everywhere in Bahrain it seemed for the Italian squad there were possible causes for regret. Even on the podium where Mercedes celebrated its latest triumph, who went up to pick up the trophy on behalf of the victorious constructor? Why, Aldo Costa. Former Ferrari Technical Director. Who left the team after being shunted to one side as a consequence of a tepid start to the 2011 season. It was almost like the Gods were making a positive point of maximising the team's discomfort.

Ferrari isn't quite the highly-strung environment that it once was, but you feel that its time-honoured combustible tendencies still linger within the place somewhere. Therefore you fear for them in terms of what the reaction will be in that outfit to what it's experiencing in the early weeks of the 2014 campaign. And with this in mind I recalled the words of James Allen said on the eve of this season's opening round in Melbourne: 'Behind the scenes I think there's a developing story there. The scene is becoming quite political at Ferrari, and there's one or two new characters in the management structure, not high profile people but people who've been around Ferrari for a while who are starting to get involved in the Formula One team, and I have a nasty feeling that things will get a little bit like The Borgias there, and especially if they don't start winning soon. My unfortunate prediction for this season is that things could get really quite nastily political in the second half of the season.'

Seasoned Scuderia watchers will shudder at this, redolent as it is of the debilitating in-fighting that has characterised the team's very darkest days of its long past. For more pressing reasons even than usual, Ferrari needs to find some pace and quickly.

http://www.talkingaboutf1.com/

[Jabberwocky]

Another eBay beauty!

Perhaps it's a little harsh to mention BMW Williams, Turkey and their alloys here...

Or he wants to be a girl on the outaide

Sent using NCC-1701

[LRW]

I think I've found the answer to the thread question......

A. They are not Mercedes.

[racechick]

Very interesting article by a Ferrari insider that illustrates the scale of the problem, it also sheds light on the recent suggestion that Flavio is been courted as TP. It could be that Montezemolo is facing pressure within Fiat. I have bolded the important bits

Fears for Ferrari
All in, it's hard to see how last Sunday could have gone worse for Ferrari.

Much of the Scuderia's royalty was in attendance for the Bahrain Grand Prix; Luca Montezemolo, Piero Lardi Ferrari, Claudio Lombardi, in a region that is a highly important market for the organisation's road cars. An F1 race has its uses as a shop window.

And in Montezemolo's case he was there also so that he could don his political hat, to circulate the place conspicuously and state his view to anyone that would listen that the new spec F1 was potentially cataclysmic to the sport's health and that urgent change was required. A reminder that Ferrari remains as willing as ever to take a holistic approach to getting results; fighting its battles both off-track and on (for all that he protested otherwise Montezemolo wouldn't have argued for change unless he thought it would benefit his team's competitiveness).

The problem was what happened where it really matters. Out on the circuit. There, the Ferraris were simply brick slow. And the problem moreover was where they were brick slow, rather unusually for the red cars it was on the straights that they were losing out; time after time it seemed the Mercedes powered machines took metres out of them in the extended sections wherein the loud pedal could be deployed on full noise. The Sakhir layout could have been designed to show such a problem up mercilessly, and it did.

Having lost position to Nico Hulkenberg's Force India early on, which cruised past the Ferrari like it was parked, each syllable of Fernando Alonso's words on the team radio - and transmitted on the TV world feed for all of our benefits - must have felt like repeated punches in the stomach for the team: 'We don’t have the power to keep him behind' (and to emphasise the fact as he said it so the feed cut to Montezemolo in the pit garage, looking rather like one chewing on a razor blade).

You may think that Ferrari's been off the pace for a while, so what's new? Well, there are plenty reasons to think that things are much more perilous for all concerned this time, and not just because the clock is ticking since the team's last championship (the constructors' crown of 2008). In previous years the team had lost out in an aero battle, mainly to Red Bull. That's one thing, as down Maranello way few pulses are quickened by aerodynamics. Engines however are something else; those have always been the real badge of honour for Ferrari ever since the freshman days of the Commendatore Enzo Ferrari. And this time it's losing out in an engine battle. On the evidence of Bahrain it's seriously losing out in it.

And Ferrari is facing the seemingly irrefutable fact that Mercedes - a rival manufacturer of performance cars - has taken the same new set of rules, started with the same blank sheet of paper, at the same time, if anything with less in the way of resource and facilities (Ferrari of course is aided by an ultra-generous financial deal with Bernie) and cleanly leapt ahead having done a markedly better job. Further this new formula was supposed to suit the Scuderia, indeed the V6 element was brought in late in the day pretty much exclusively at Ferrari's behest.

Even the diverting nature of the race was in its way bad news; shooting as it did the fox that Montezemolo (among others) was doing his best to set loose that the sport this year wasn't serving up entertainment. Everywhere in Bahrain it seemed for the Italian squad there were possible causes for regret. Even on the podium where Mercedes celebrated its latest triumph, who went up to pick up the trophy on behalf of the victorious constructor? Why, Aldo Costa. Former Ferrari Technical Director. Who left the team after being shunted to one side as a consequence of a tepid start to the 2011 season. It was almost like the Gods were making a positive point of maximising the team's discomfort.

Ferrari isn't quite the highly-strung environment that it once was, but you feel that its time-honoured combustible tendencies still linger within the place somewhere. Therefore you fear for them in terms of what the reaction will be in that outfit to what it's experiencing in the early weeks of the 2014 campaign. And with this in mind I recalled the words of James Allen said on the eve of this season's opening round in Melbourne: 'Behind the scenes I think there's a developing story there. The scene is becoming quite political at Ferrari, and there's one or two new characters in the management structure, not high profile people but people who've been around Ferrari for a while who are starting to get involved in the Formula One team, and I have a nasty feeling that things will get a little bit like The Borgias there, and especially if they don't start winning soon. My unfortunate prediction for this season is that things could get really quite nastily political in the second half of the season.'

Seasoned Scuderia watchers will shudder at this, redolent as it is of the debilitating in-fighting that has characterised the team's very darkest days of its long past. For more pressing reasons even than usual, Ferrari needs to find some pace and quickly.

http://www.talkingaboutf1.com/

What jumped out at me there was that The new engine formula was brought in at Ferrari's behest!! Is that so? What I've been hearing is that Ferrari have been adamantly against it , never wanted it, hate it! Which is it?

[What's Burning?]

They weren't the ones asking for an engine change, however as Spanky has said elsewhere that Mercedes got EVERYTHING they wanted, that's very misleading. There was a delay of the rules for a year and two additional cylinders were added. Both should have clearly allowed Renault and Mercedes to produce a solid finished product.

The additional cylinders is part of the internal combustion engine (ICE) part of the PU, an area where Ferrari should have excelled in was made 50% bigger. The additional year of testing, preparation and production should have been a massive boost to Renault since they were the ones that asked for the engine spec to be changed in the first place.

As we've seen however, it's Mercedes the ones that have seemingly taken Renault's and Ferrari's lunch money out in the play ground. I guess we'll see soon enough if it will be Luca or Stefano or both that will be joining Whitmarsh wherever he's off on vacation to. Aldo Costa is probably grinning through it all though.

[Nin-Chin]

Besides drivers swap chassis every now and then anyway.

[CookinFlat6]

2 chassis might be identical at homologation but they certainly won't be after a race. Strange that Ferrari decided to use Kimis for Alonso during testing. I sometimes buy 2 identical suits cos I'm lazy when it comes to shopping, however they soon 'take form' around be in unique ways.
Maybe Ferrari are hiding a big problem and the chassis is an excuse. Maybe it's already kicking off behind the scenes and we got disgruntled employees swapping tyres and things around

[CookinFlat6]

All the makers including Merc agreed to the 4 cylinder , Audi were intent on joining. It was Ferrari who turned around and insisted they wanted more cylinders or they would leave so we moved from V8s not to radical and challenging straight 4s but to V6s and Audi/VW/Porsche didn't turn up
In fact iirc Ferrari originally agreed to 4 cylinders thinking it would be V4s allowing them to literally bring half the engine they know how to make, but when in line 4s were agreed due to v4s being inherently unstable, Ferrari threw their toys out the pram, forced a year delay and got V6s

Also any excuse that they are good at ICE and that ERS is others expertise is horse poo. They now sell hybrids along with 918 and P1, so hybrids is as relevant to then as it is to Merc.

I just can't believe that with all the info available free so many choose to propagate misleading agendas out of a sense of loyalty to a company who stay in business mostly on the back of nostalgia and spin and smoke and mirrors. The only ones smiling are the shareholders when one can buy a superior road car for a quarter of the price and the only reason people still fall for the con is this 'mystic' and 'aura' about cars that increasingly look no different from Japanese cars with body kits

Why would anyone sane pay 100k pure premium for a car simply for the name, and prestige and heritage? Well because there is an army of Honda driving Ferrari t shirt wearing groupies willing to perpetuate the myth and legend even though the shareholders would give a toss about them.

If in doubt, consider this, Fiat actively tried to sell off Ferrari to help bolster its warchest for Chrysler. Thats how much Fiat think about Ferrari when it comes to doing real business - selling real cars to real people. Also this stuff about the most powerful brand? that was sudden wasnt it, definitely noting to do with fattening the calf before flogging it to a Chinese car maker?

Things are never what they seem and to not look deeply is no crime but to propogate and fight for things without looking deeply is what has caused nmost of the problems in the world. We got the internet, in some countries they would have your right arm off to be able to access all the info, but here in the free world we have those who have no interest in the truth but will fight for their own assumed truth or for the truth sold to them by institutions with an agenda

edit; content self removed before the morality police get up in arms and start shooting up the place

Edit: /Rant over, thank you if you actually read that, especially if sober lol

[spankyham]

Yet another thread locked. Under review by the increasing busy race stewards.

[What's Burning?]

ESPNF1 Stefano Domenicali has resigned as Ferrari team principal with immediate effect, according to unconfirmed reports in Italy.

I wanted a place to discuss the rumored (but we all know those F1 rumors don't we?) Ferrari events of today. This thread has a lot of content already on it, so no need to repeat what's already been said.

It's my opinion at this point that the first place to begin to fix a problem is to admit that a problem exist. Ferrari are not in denial at this point. Step one, taken.