Ferrari verdict 2018

Ferrari verdict 2018

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Discussion

turbomoped

Original Poster:

4,180 posts

82 months

Wednesday 14th November 2018
quotequote all
How to judge the Ferrari effort in 2018?
They had the best car for quite a large part of the season but Vettel could finish the season 4 races behind the winner.
Thats a huge gap and no doubt heads will roll but whose?
You wonder who pushed through the upgrade that wasn't an upgrade. Why have it on both
cars?
Vettel has done his bit dropping points everywhere and now everybody thinks kimi is good
but he was never going to challenge for the title.
If you look at a Frank Williams in the glory days he would have hit the ejector seat on his star driver
after this year but Ferrari seem to be more loyal.

super7

1,922 posts

207 months

Wednesday 14th November 2018
quotequote all
Quite simply.... Vettel destroyed Ferrari's season single handedly and I bet they can't wait for LeClerc to turn up next month.

Vettel's inability to control his emotions and his little tantrums have lost Ferrari all the points they needed for the championships....

Races he cocked up.... Germany, France, Italy, Singapore, Japan. And these are all in the second half of the year when the championship was ebbing away. All apart from from Germany whilst going wheel to wheel. Quite simply can't take the pressure of having to fight for something.

His 4 championships with Red Bull were all won in a dominant car, where he scarpered off at the start and nobody could keep up. He can't race wheel to wheel.

IforB

9,840 posts

228 months

Wednesday 14th November 2018
quotequote all
Ferrari have shown the ability to produce an excellent car. Where they have fallen down is on their decision making and organisational control.

I think what we've seen in many ways is just how important Sergio Marchionne was in keeping things on a relatively even keel. Once he died, then things have started to unravel and from what I can glean from the press in Italy is that there are two factions within the team with very different ideas on how to do things.

One support Vettel and the other do not and hence why Le Clerc has a seat rather than a compliant number 2. I suspect there will be bloodshed over the winter and the Agnelli's will step in and wield the axe at some point.

I rather suspect that Ferrari will have a difficult year again next year as I doubt the in-fighting will be solved in full.

Ferrari and Vettel should have won this year. They didn't. They've lost the strong leader who was able to smash heads together and had the power to make it happen his way. My guess is that next year is going to be a mess with flashes of brilliance, but ultimately continuing, as they have this year, to fall short.

DS240

4,637 posts

217 months

Wednesday 14th November 2018
quotequote all
Lost it as a team;
- Bad strategy calls made
- Development went off track
- Vettel lost his head again, as he did in 2017.

It has been very frustrating last 2-3 years as a fan.

Raikkonen should have gone years ago and Vettel has not stepped up.

I’m pleased Leclerc is coming in. It’s quite clearly a move put in place because they are losing faith in vettel. Otherwise kimi would be staying.

I hope leclerc really is a new star but worry about the infighting distracting the bigger goals.

They’ve got to get back fighting for it next year.


StevieBee

12,795 posts

254 months

Wednesday 14th November 2018
quotequote all
There remains an as yet (as far as I'm aware) unanswered correlation between the moment the FIA started to monitor Ferrari's battery usage and a comparable drop in their performance.

Whether or not this added pressure to Vettel leading to the mistakes he made, who knows!

ellroy

7,005 posts

224 months

Wednesday 14th November 2018
quotequote all
Pretty sure I read somewhere that the monitoring/battery issue was uncorrelated to the dip in form, in fact was no issue 'found'?

Tin hat on, of course that doesn't mean that there wasn't something there that wasn't found or removed before it could be of course!

entropy

5,403 posts

202 months

Wednesday 14th November 2018
quotequote all
For me the Italian GP summed up Ferrari's year: bad calls from the pits and errors from Vettel. The whole weekend was the turning point of the WDC because if it was bad in Germany then the errors in Monza made things worse.

I wouldn't read too much into the PU. FIA were aware and monitoring it earlier this year. Nor would I blame the blip in development. It was just a minor blip and Ferrari came back with a new floor.

Conversely Hamilton was not happy about getting the right tyre temperatures earlier this year, bad VSC pit calls and now having to deal with blistering due to the change in minimum pressures. He had a lot more to overcome to become WDC compared to Seb who on paper should have won it.

oyster

12,577 posts

247 months

Thursday 15th November 2018
quotequote all
I am amazed at how much criticism there is of Vettel on here, and in particular the way it diminishes the effort and skill shown by Lewis.

Quite simply this year, Hamilton and Mercedes have been near faultless.

The teamwork from Mercedes has been top notch. They made 2 strategy errors all season with Hamilton, and it barely cost them (14pts swing in Australia and 0pts loss in Austria).
Hamilton has stepped up yet another gear in qualifying. On those weekends where Mercedes and Ferrari (and sometimes Red Bull) were evenly matched, he almost always took the pole.
And then team orders - Bottas has been the perfect number 2 this year. Ferrari have looked like they can't remember who number 1 is.

It's simple to me. Hamilton and Mercedes WON the title this year because of their ability, not because of Ferrari's and Vettel's errors.

rdjohn

6,135 posts

194 months

Thursday 15th November 2018
quotequote all
DS240 said:
Lost it as a team;
- Bad strategy calls made
- Development went off track
- Vettel lost his head again, as he did in 2017.

It has been very frustrating last 2-3 years as a fan.

Raikkonen should have gone years ago and Vettel has not stepped up.

I’m pleased Leclerc is coming in. It’s quite clearly a move put in place because they are losing faith in vettel. Otherwise kimi would be staying.

I hope leclerc really is a new star but worry about the infighting distracting the bigger goals.

They’ve got to get back fighting for it next year.
I think you have it here, I would add that the loss of Marchionne means that the woolly thinking / managment is more likely to continue, rather than halted.

Even with LeClerc onboard, I think Lewis will have an easier year next year.

The loss of someone like James Allison can have a big impact when the regs change significantly.

LaurasOtherHalf

21,429 posts

195 months

Thursday 15th November 2018
quotequote all
Posturing is everything at Ferrari and next year is going to be a humdinger, even by their own standards.

If the Red Bull Honda isn’t the class of the field, and it could be, the most interesting battle is going to be at Ferrari between the two garages.

I personally, can’t wait!

KillianB4

150 posts

110 months

Thursday 15th November 2018
quotequote all
I think blaming the result on Vettel alone is a bit much, yes he has to fit a portion of the blame but the team and strategy were far from blameless. I think Leclerc will push Vettel hard next year and it could be even messier.

Derek Smith

45,514 posts

247 months

Thursday 15th November 2018
quotequote all
Ferrari, despite their failure to deliver, really made this season. Their performance, especially up to mid-season, was class of the field. Some driver errors might have cost them, but in general, they were flying. For one season at least Merc was challenged on speed.

It's been a great season. Now both championships have been decided I suppose Abu will be dull, but that's little against the number of races that have had us on the edge of our seats.

It's a shame that Vettel/Ferrari didn't continue. I think, like others on here, that Marchionne's death was a major influence, possibly indirectly. Ferrari's internal battles had been reduced under him, but there were reports of stress - see the tory party for details.

Let's hope they sort it out over the winter, but that will depend who gets in the big chair. If there is a battle between Leclerk and Vettel it will need managing. Mind you, if it is managed poorly, it could be fun.


stevesingo

4,848 posts

221 months

Thursday 15th November 2018
quotequote all
Poor leadership at Ferrari.

Not getting stuck in to Vettel to prevent mistakes, particularly Germany, where he should have been supported by the pit wall WRT to gap to Hamilton and the situation. Instead he pushed too hard an binned it. Managing your star drivers state of ind is key if you want success.

Telling Kimi he was out of a Job at Monza. Before the race! WTF did you think would happen? This added pressure for Vettel Ferrari didn't need.

The above caused losses of points which led to even more pressure. This led to pushing through an aero update which didn't work. Desperation set in. More pressure on Vettel, more mistakes.

Just look at the weigh bridge fiasco. Who in the team was telling Vettel to calm down?