Ferrari's stupity

[jens]

I have to say that ioan's maths are right. To make it more clear for others, then one simple comparison.
Let's assume a pitstop lasts for 25 seconds.
Strategy #1: Kimi lost 42 seconds with wrong tyres, then he made a pitstop (+25) = all in all a loss of 67 secs.
Strategy #2: Team had realized the mistake immediately and Kimi would have come in a lap later. Let's assume he lost 5 seconds on that lap with worn tyres. So let's add extra 25 secs with pitstop. And then later in the race he would have made one more pitstop for fuel and why not new tyres again (+25 for once more). All in all this is 55 seconds.

In addition the latter strategy would have been faster, because with the variant #1 he made his last stop in midrace and was filled with fuel until the end, so his pace suffered due to heavy fuel ballast. With strategy #2 he would have managed to make faster laptimes with lighter fuel load on board plus he would have had fresher tyres for the last stint.

Hope now it's clear.

[ioan]

I have to say that ioan's maths are right. To make it more clear for others, then one simple comparison.
Let's assume a pitstop lasts for 25 seconds.
Strategy #1: Kimi lost 42 seconds with wrong tyres, then he made a pitstop (+25) = all in all a loss of 67 secs.
Strategy #2: Team had realized the mistake immediately and Kimi would have come in a lap later. Let's assume he lost 5 seconds on that lap with worn tyres. So let's add extra 25 secs with pitstop. And then later in the race he would have made one more pitstop for fuel and why not new tyres again (+25 for once more). All in all this is 55 seconds.

In addition the latter strategy would have been faster, because with the variant #1 he made his last stop in midrace and was filled with fuel until the end, so his pace suffered due to heavy fuel ballast. With strategy #2 he would have managed to make faster laptimes with lighter fuel load on board plus he would have had fresher tyres for the last stint.

Hope now it's clear.

Finally someone who understands Maths!

Keep in mind that he only lost 2-3 seconds on the first lap after the pit stop and that a short pitstop for tire change would have only lost him 20 seconds, and he would have been at least 20 seconds up the road at the end.

[Firstgear]

ioan, your addition may be correct, but your logic uses the benefit of hindsight. After seeing Kimi lose a couple of seconds a lap after pitting, they must of been relying on the track drying very soon otherwise they would have brought him in. I think it should be their meteorologist taking the heat, not the strategist. Everybody else seemed to know it was going to rain - why did Ferrari think it was drying?

[GP-M3]

Lot of good points around here. First off this one... even the commentaors on FOX said 'rain predicted in five minutes' about a minute before Kimi pitted? WTF?

Also, I was cursing the screen when I saw everyone just sitting aroudn Kimi's car when they were refueling him... what an embarassment.

Finally, I agree with Ioan, they should have attempted something, and that means bringing Kimi in for fresh tires. They might even have put him on extreems for 10 laps, then bring him in for inters and fueled to the end. But to just let him flounder around for 10 laps made them all look like chumps.

Couldn't agree less with the conclusion of the original poster. Kimi was class, and sucked up the blame along with the team. MS was fantastic, but I'm quite happy with Kimi too.

ioan, your addition may be correct, but your logic uses the benefit of hindsight. After seeing Kimi lose a couple of seconds a lap after pitting, they must of been relying on the track drying very soon otherwise they would have brought him in. I think it should be their meteorologist taking the heat, not the strategist. Everybody else seemed to know it was going to rain - why did Ferrari think it was drying?

[wedge]

I have to say that ioan's maths are right. To make it more clear for others, then one simple comparison.
Let's assume a pitstop lasts for 25 seconds.
Strategy #1: Kimi lost 42 seconds with wrong tyres, then he made a pitstop (+25) = all in all a loss of 67 secs.
Strategy #2: Team had realized the mistake immediately and Kimi would have come in a lap later. Let's assume he lost 5 seconds on that lap with worn tyres. So let's add extra 25 secs with pitstop. And then later in the race he would have made one more pitstop for fuel and why not new tyres again (+25 for once more). All in all this is 55 seconds.

5s is an optimistic number!

Kimi & Lewis come in on lap 21.

You have no idea how quick Ferrari team will react to a strategy change because on lap 23 Kimi was 4.6s behind then subsequently 9.8s, 15.1s, 21.8s, 30.3s, 34.8s, 42.1s.

As firstgear pointed out, the strategy would've worked if the conditions remained constant, but it was never constant. Kimi did a poor job and lost time from spinning off the road than Lewis did when the heavy showers came.

[mstillhere]

His comments make absolute sense, I don't know what you're on about.

James Allen is TOTALLY biased in his reports. No matter what he does, Lewis is the best driver that the whole world has ever seen. This time with reason (although Webber's start was a little puzzling for me - since despite leaving plenty of room to Lewis he did not even try to defend his position - but I digress) but also when he screws up. So, I don't think Alllen should be mentioned at all as a F1 expert since he only has eyes for Lewis.

[Hawkmoon]

When you consider that before the first stop Raikkonen was considerably faster than Hamilton and had closed the gap to less than a second I think it becomes clear why Ferrari didn't change the tyres. If the rain hadn't come then Raikkonen would almost certainly have passed Hamilton as the Brit's new inters wouldn't have lasted. So I have no problem with the initial decsion.

It's the decsion not to counter the increasing rain that I have a problem with. It became obvious that the rain was going to be a problem very quickly. At that point Ferrari should have changed Raikkonen's tyres. This would have stopped his time loss due to being on the wrong tyre. Sure, the pitstop would have cost time but it would have been about damage limitation at this point. It would have also put Raikkonen on the same tyres as Hamilton and the Finn had already demonstrated that he was quicker on those tyres than the Brit, especially as the tyres wore down.

I think Ferrari were lucky to get fourth as it could have been much worse. I think they lost 3 points only as I don't think that Raikkonen would have beaten Hamilton with the extra stop. I'm pretty sure he would have beaten Heidfeld and Barrichello though.

Considering the weekend I think Ferrari are pretty lucky to have a decent margin in the WCC an to have both their drivers tied for the WDC lead. It couls have been much, much worse.

[ShiftingGears]

Now instead of losing 40 seconds during 6 laps on the wrong tires he would have only lost 20 seconds and would have had the same tires as the leader.

That is not what Allen said. He said that if he had pitted after 6 laps on the wrong tyres he would have been 60 seconds behind. That is more or less the same amount of time that Kimi would've lost staying out there until lap 30.

40 + 20 = 60.

Simple maths and comprehension, ioan.

[aryan]

I think people are being a little harsh on Ferrari. Sunday's conditions were a lottery, and in those circumstances hindsight has made the team look chumps. Perhaps if Todt/Brawn were there they wouldn't have made the calls they did, who knows, but even they didn't get things right every time.

Look it's not just Silverstone. I can think of at least two more races now (Monaco, Istanbul) where they've thrown valuable points to the winds.

They need Brawn, and they know it.

[ArrowsFA1]

They need Brawn, and they know it.

Well, it's too late for that

The departure of people like Brawn who contributed enormously to Ferrari's success over the last few years was always going to have an effect. No team dominates F1 indefinately and as a great man once said "All Things Must Pass".

Luca's cracking the whip though:

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has urged his team and drivers to stop making "stupid" mistakes if they are to stay in contention for the world championship this season.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/68977