Quote:
Originally Posted by Bagwan
Sloppy ?
No .
Not strong enough .
Mousa is a number twelve driver at best .
Massa should have been gone long ago. The end 0f 2010, for me.
It will be interesting to see how things develop next year at Ferrari.
So long as we get Motivated Kimi and not the Ice-Cream Licker, it should be ok on the driver front.
People forget that, even with the Mclaren team against him, Fernando nearly won the title in 07 in a most hostile environment, so I think it is hopeful, to the say the least, for people to think he can't cope with a strong team-mate.
As I said before, I hope the two of them are battling for wins.
If the car is only capable of podiums, at best, then both drivers will be difficult to manage for the team - Fernando because once again Ferrari will have failed to deliver and there will be fall-out from that, and Kimi because, well, he is already on record as saying he struggles for motivation if the car is not a challenger.
Let us hope that the wind-tunnel and the engine department come up with something.
For me,part of the failure to produce a car capable of bossing a championship since '08 is due to the sea-change in methodology brought on by the testing ban, and the increase in simulation development.
Ferrari got caught by being too reliant on the things that worked in the testing era, and had failed to keep pace with the new, relevant tooling which Red Bull have excelled in.
It was inevitable, since up until 2008 there was no need to change a successful formula. But often, a teams strength is also its weakness, and the successes of the system perfected in the Todt/Brawn/Byrne triumvirate are, in some ways, what has led to the weaknesses in the current Scuderia.
For the blame for that, I would target Luca. Happy to Lord it in the good times, rash to promote on Nationality and a politically-fuelled ambition, side-tracked into talk of running 3 cars, and all the while not having the foresight to see that the world was changing.
To claim, as some do, that the current driver line-up is responsible for the relative lack of success since the start of 2010 is both uneducated, unaware and simplistic.
To think, as some do, that the return of Kimi will show that the recent Number 1 driver has failed, is again simplistic.
The problems of Ferrari go much deeper than the decision to retain Massa for too long.
In some ways, the decision to keep him post-accident, where his contributions have been intermittent, if one is feeling charitable, have merely accelerated and brought into sharper focus the current managerial issues affecting Maranello, for had he been replaced by a driver who had contributed more, and had, for the sake of argument, those contributions enabled Alonso to claim two titles (a not unfeasible supposition), then the cracks would have been papered over, but the fundamental weakness of the Scuderias construction would not only still be there, but would be even further behind in the future.
Pat Fry is, hopefully, bringing the team's technical department into shape, and the recent additions should, I trust, help and move the department forward, but while there remains at the head a management which is slow to react, something Todt's team were not guilty of, then there is underlying trouble brewing which will not be cured in the short term.
Todt gave Ferrari a real determination. It was not corporate, or sterile. Far from it, it was attacking and it was confrontational and it was pushy.
Three attributes that could never be laid at Domenicali's door.
But three attributes vital to success.
