Will Alonso still go to Ferrari?

[Duke of Rothesay]

Ferrari were in the wilderness for many years with terrible results.
Then along came Brawn, Todt, Schumacher, Byrne, Stepney etc (non Italians) to form a dream team.
They then dominated F1 for many years.
But now the dream team has split up and gone their seperate ways and mostly been replaced with Italians.
And they have been going downhill ever since.
Last year they couldn't make the tyres work and had a seies of disasters in the pits.
This year they have a car that is just slightly better than a Force India.

So will Alonso still move there? Maybe he would be better staying at Renault.
In fact would any top driver want to move there?
And will Kimi and Massa want to stay?

The new rules are killing Ferrari. In the past when they had a problem they just tested 24/7 till they beat it. Now with no testing they are stuck with what they have got. The new rules favour brains over money so having a Newey or a Brawn becomes even more important. And Ferrari don't seem to have those brains.

[stephen300o]

Ferrari in the same boat as Mclaren then.
I'm sure Fernando will look at his options latter on, maybe have a chat to Ross too.(assuming he hasn't signed anything yet)

[DrTre]

It's a very good point, this shift in power has opened up a variety of possibilities for drives. Then again, will next year see a return to the status quo? This year is probably a bit of an anomoly both for the diffuser issue and also that the two main players resources were taken to the wire last year with others canning the '08 effort early.

The reverse situation is that Ren, McL and Ferrari ditch '09 early and concentrate their efforts on '10, particularly if KERS is mandatory next year.

[rev-erend]

I hope he does go to Fezza..

They deserve each other.

[E30M3SE]

rev-erend said:

I hope he does go to Fezza..

They deserve each other.

[patmahe]

Of course he'll go to Ferrari, when he brings his 0.6 seconds with him they'll be right on the pace

[Duke of Rothesay]

patmahe said:

Of course he'll go to Ferrari, when he brings his 0.6 seconds with him they'll be right on the pace

That is a good point.
He has to be a better car developer than Kimi, who isn't at all, and probably better than Massa too, who has far less experience at the top of F1.
Alonso certainly developed that Renault very impressively during the course of last year.

Edited by Duke of Rothesay on Friday 17th April 12:51

[Marcia]

patmahe said:

Of course he'll go to Ferrari, when he brings his 0.6 seconds with him they'll be right on the pace

[Munter]

Duke of Rothesay said:

Alonso certainly developed that Renault very impressively during the course of last year.

Not to mention the Engine development that Renault were granted on "reliability" grounds.... After which they got a tad quicker.

[stifler]

Duke of Rothesay said:

patmahe said:

Of course he'll go to Ferrari, when he brings his 0.6 seconds with him they'll be right on the pace

That is a good point.
He has to be a better car developer than Kimi, who isn't at all, and probably better than Massa too, who has far less experience at the top of F1.
Alonso certainly developed that Renault very impressively during the course of last year.

Whoosh!!


2 points to add, Massa was Ferrari test driver for a year in 2005(?) so he can't be completely crap at car development or Ferrari wouldn't have bothered.

Renaults performance seemed to get better with the performance reliability upgrade that the FIA allowed them to carry out in the middle part of last season.

Edited by stifler on Friday 17th April 14:38

[Muzzer]

stifler said:

2 points to add, Massa was Ferrari test driver for a year in 2005(?) so he can't be completely crap at car development or Ferrari wouldn't have bothered.

I wouldn't be too sure of that.

Don't forget that Ferrari did (and still do) have 2 test drivers.

Back then it was Luca Badoer and Massa, now it's Badoer and Marc Gene.

IMO, Massa's primary function was to learn how to drive the car without throwing it into the scenery. Badoer was there for development.

Re: Alonso. Rumour has it he's signed already. I'm not so sure but if he has then he could be in some trouble. In history, teams have had purple patches of around a decade or so - Williams in the 90s, McLaren in the 80s, etc. Maybe Ferrari's could be ending....

[stifler]

Muzzer said:

Re: Alonso. Rumour has it he's signed already. I'm not so sure but if he has then he could be in some trouble. In history, teams have had purple patches of around a decade or so - Williams in the 90s, McLaren in the 80s, etc. Maybe Ferrari's could be ending....

There has to be a clause in the contract though. One that says that unless Ferrari can make a competitive car for him, it's no go. There will be a get out from both sides available.

[RichB]

stephen300o said:

Ferrari in the same boat as Mclaren then.

In what way? Have they had their entire engineering, development and management team replaced by Italians too

[benny 61]

i hope Fernando does go to Ferrari and they have a competitive car next year, i might be in the minority on here but i'm a big fan of his and love to see him doing well but Jensen doing well is a breath of fresh air and good for us Brits

[stephen300o]

RichB said:

stephen300o said:

Ferrari in the same boat as Mclaren then.

In what way? Have they had their entire engineering, development and management team replaced by Italians too

Mid field with distractions.

[Munter]

stephen300o said:

RichB said:

stephen300o said:

Ferrari in the same boat as Mclaren then.

In what way? Have they had their entire engineering, development and management team replaced by Italians too

Mid field with distractions.

This kind of problem. damn i thought it was a ferrari in the picture....but it'll have to do

[AlexS]

Munter said:

Duke of Rothesay said:

Alonso certainly developed that Renault very impressively during the course of last year.

Not to mention the Engine development that Renault were granted on "reliability" grounds.... After which they got a tad quicker.

They've actually been fairly slow since upgrading their engine, that happened after the season finished. The performance gain seen last season came from getting their wind tunnel back into calibration and making some significant aero gains.

[rubystone]

I think that what may be more interesting is who Alonso might have partnering him at Renault this season. One thing is for sure, his partner is going to be Brazilian.

[rev-erend]

I seem to remember there have been periods in the not so recent past when the Italians have 'taken over' from others at Ferrari .. and then a period of the boonies have set in.

[williamp]

I suspect that, like most of the current teams, they have not dismissed Ferrari. Now the diffusers have been clarified, I expect them to become very good quite soon....unhappily!