Monday 8th June 2015

Ferrari vs McLaren, round two: PH Blog

Why Italian roads will always hand Ferrari an advantage against McLaren

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Just how big an influence does the country a car is developed in make on what it's like to drive? Less so now that even the Americans feel duty bound to benchmark their domestic product at the bloody Nurburgring. But it still matters.

Essential car park testing regime makes it count

Traditionally we'd have said this was a plus point for British manufacturers, our narrow, twisty, bumpy and speed restricted rural roads resulting in cars that make a virtue of being nimble, supple and fun to drive at realistic speeds.

From small volume sports car builders to mainstream manufacturers like Jaguar Land Rover, the classic British shakedown has real value. Especially in comparison with the Germans, obsessed as they stereotypically are with Autobahn (over) gearing and tied-down Nordschleife damper settings.

Bit different when it comes to supercars though. And a specific issue for McLaren in its rivalry with Ferrari.

Not a bad proving ground, as they go

A short drive from Maranello is one of those roads that really shows up strengths and weaknesses in a car's chassis and set-up. It's bumpy, climbs the steep side of a valley with hairpin after hairpin before opening out into fast straights and corners at the top. Seemingly well known to visiting hacks you'll have seen many a Ferrari photographed and videoed here. Often sideways and laying down thick number 11s on the tarmac. Going by my time there on the 488 GTB launch it's also a favourite of the Ferrari test drivers. Who do much the same, I'm assuming on a frequent basis. Do the locals seem bothered? Beyond a bit of misty-eyed national pride at seeing fully lit 488 and F12 M mules giving it the beans on the public road seemingly not.

Stereotypes apart this has to be a unique competitive advantage for Ferrari compared with McLaren. If the 488 project chief wants to test a new damper setting or ESP calibration in flat-out road conditions he can just chuck the keys to the nearest test driver, send him off and in a couple of hours he'll have his results. The benefits of this are obvious behind the wheel of any modern Ferrari.

How can his opposite number at McLaren rival that? Just how would the residents of Surrey react if Chris Goodwin and his team regularly laid rubber down on Box Hill and weaved between other traffic and cyclists in camo'd 675LTs at 120mph? By giving them a thumbs up for demonstrating British engineering prowess in action?

Box Hill here we come ... oh

Sure, McLaren can use any number of airfields, race tracks or test circuits. And, huge credit to them, there are no glaring deficiencies in the way McLarens drive on road or track. Far from it. But nailing those final few percentages of the set-up will involve time, expense and faff the Ferrari engineers simply don't have to contend with.

Same with Porsche. I'll forgive Wolfgang Hatz a bit of poetic licence when he says he does 300km/h every day on his way to work. But the point is, if he wanted to, he probably could find a quiet bit of Autobahn on the way home and find out how his latest prototype works in extremis. Not quite the same as Ferrari's local back roads. But better than Bruntingthorpe.

I'm not saying giving McLaren test drivers special dispensation to rag around Surrey back roads at maximum attack is necessarily a good idea. But as long as their equivalents in Maranello get the opportunity to the same on their local roads that has to hand an advantage to the Italians. What then, F1 style testing restrictions for supercar makers? Might spice things up a bit.

Dan

Spy photos: S. Baldauf/SB-Medien

[Enricogto]

The point of the article is????

The road you are referring to is an old road used only by cyclists and Ferrari to test their cars (a new, much straighter and faster road runs at the bottom of the valley). Ferrari pays for the tarmac to be resurfaced regularly. Bar a couple of farms, no one lives there. The residents aren't complaining (I for one enjoy the wail resonating against the hills!) so I really struggle to see the problem.

[Enricogto]

Dan Trent said:

Just some musings edited out of the first draft of my 488 review! It just struck me that the ability to apparently test 'at pace' on the public road must gift the Ferrari engineers a competitive advantage over their rivals, specifically McLaren in this instance. Borne out by the way the 488 handles over some pretty crummy and challenging surfaces. And the amusement at seeing fully lit prototypes out in the wild!

Credit due to their McLaren opposite numbers - more credit really - that they have done such a good job of their cars even with this restriction on how they test on the public road. Either that or they know some routes around Surrey that I don't!

Dan

Dan,

in the development process for any new Ferrari, most of the "hard" miles are driven on circuit (mainly Fiorano, but now also the new AutodroMo in Modena that is built specifically for that purpose). Only durability tests and pre-delivery are done on the road. The one most of the shots are taken from is a road that, as I said, is not really busy and where the local police closes an eye given the low traffic density and the limited dangers (last accident I remember is an F40 being smashed at the end of one straight some 26 years ago). Also, do you know that any test-driver whose license gets revoked is at serious risk of losing the job, according to the guidelines?
As for McLaren, I myself, know at least a couple of nice b roads from London leading towards Goodwood for example, where the chance of getting stopped by the police are pretty remote.... And if Surrey is not an option, i'm sure there's plenty of miles of tarmac in Wales or Scotland who could serve the purpose.