Ferrari are heading in the right direction with upgrades – Binotto

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In the round-up: Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto says the upgrades the team brought to the Nurburgring worked as their simulations indicated they would.

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What they say

Mattia Binotto, Ferrari, Nurburgring, 2020
Binotto says Ferrari’s upgrades are working as expected
Binotto said the upgraded SF1000’s performance at the Eifel Grand Prix showed reflected what they expected from their wind tunnel and factory work.

I think we were not expecting a lot of difference. It was a small upgrade, it was completing a package we started to introduce in Russia.

I think they were positive in the way that they were correlating well with what we saw at the wind tunnel and back at the factory and that we’re taking the car in the right direction. There will be some further upgrades over the remainder of the season which will be important, as well.

For us what’s key is to finish developing the car but more important is to make sure that the direction we take is the right one for next season.

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

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Comment of the day

Roger Ayles doesn’t like the sound of Red Bull’s call for F1 engine development to be frozen again:

Remember when F1 used to be about a technical development race with teams and engine manufacturer’s free to innovate?

We’d have never got the DFV, 1,400 bhp turbos, fround effects, the fan car, six wheels, semi-automatic gearboxes, active suspension or any of the other clever, exciting and interesting technical innovations under the IndyCar-plus formula the ‘show/entertainment’ generation are forcing into this once great sport.

The last engine freeze with the V8s after 2007 made that engine formula the most boring, uninteresting and uneventful formula in F1’s history.
Roger Ayles

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Author information

Hazel Southwell
Hazel is a motorsport and automotive journalist with a particular interest in hybrid systems, electrification, batteries and new fuel technologies....

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31 comments on “Ferrari are heading in the right direction with upgrades – Binotto”

  1. RE Cotd:

    Although the engine formula may have been boring, from 2007 to 2010, we had 4 different world champions with multiple race and podium winners. There 5 different world champions from 5 different teams from 2006 to 2013.

    Sure RB and Vettel won 2010 to 2013, but years like 2010 and 2012 were very exciting with multiple drivers and teams in contention till the latter stages of the championship. In those 8 years, only 2011 and 2013 (the latter half of that season) were dud RB runaways. I’d take that.

    I’d rather have a boring engine formula if it breeds good competitive racing.

    1. 2005-2010 was truly a golden age for Formula 1

      We had 5 newly crowned world champions in the space of 6 years. Every season was unique, vibrant, and had its own storyline.

      Looking back, I really did not appreciate that era enough. After 4 years of Red Bull dominance followed by 8 years of Mercedes dominance, I would do anything to get that era back.

      1. Yes, it was a great era.

        During the RB era, they won, but there was still level of competition. In 2010 and 2011, 5 drivers from 3 different teams won races, in 2012 8 drivers from 6 different teams won races, in 2013 5 drivers from 4 different teams won races. And then you’d get the odd podium from a FI or Sauber as well.

        Its a bit of a monolith now. Taking Gasly’s win out, only 3 teams have won races since 2013.

        1. @jaymenon10 Yes, in 2011 and ’13, there might’ve been more drivers and or teams in quantity winning, but this doesn’t change the fact how dominant Seb was in these two seasons running away with the WDC on both occasions.

        2. @jaymenon10 and yet, that wasn’t the way that it was seen at the time.

          When you look at what people were complaining about during the V8 era, it was about excessive manufacturer dominance, that the same teams were overly dominant in the sport – Ferrari and McLaren in particular – and often the criticism was that the individual races themselves were not particularly exciting, even if the championship might have been more interesting.

          At the time, there wasn’t a perception that the races were producing “good competitive racing” either. The forums here were awash with fans complaining that the excessive amount of spending on aero trickery meant it was impossible to follow another car closely and made the cars look hideous, that the cars were too easy to drive and too slow after the cut in power following the switch from V10s to V8s, that the cost of switching engine format was causing rampant cost inflation and driving out the independent teams and independent manufacturers – sounding rather familiar?

          Whilst fans might now look back at that era in a fonder light, there were a lot of complaints being raised by the fans at the time. If you were to go back in time to that era, I suspect many would have laughed at you if you were to tell them that they should be thankful for living through a golden age of the sport.

    2. I agree. 2007-2010 were good years and the v8 years were good. The hybrid years have been mostly a snoozefest and while I don’t think the engine is the only thing to blame (massive aero increase and pirellis) this engine has done it more than it’s fair share to make it worse.

      Engine freeze with some level of parity would only make it better than what we have now in short term. Merc still has chassis advantage so chances are they’d still keep winning everything. Engine freeze would need to be done smart tho. Makes no sense to just freeze it as it is and lock ferrari and red bull into their current timezones.

      1. @socksolid

        They had to bring in the extra aero or the speeds of the hybrids would have been embarrassing, same with the tyre size, you hardly notice it on TV because they are all that size but when you are next to one, thats embarrassing as well. f1 goes SUV.

        The cars are only just faster than 2004 with 1000bhp and massive tyres and downforce. Weight is one issue, ok some of that weight is increased safety but with grooved tyres and around 750bhp the 2004 was the high water mark of speed vs size, the 2000 West McLaren is a thing of beauty.

        But the manufacturers wanted hybrid to be a good news story so they upped the downforce to the obvious detriment of wheel to wheel racing as all the drivers said at the time.

    3. From 1997 to 2013 the only truly dud years were 2002, 2004, 2011 and the second half of 2013 when teams gave up to put resources towards the new 2014 hybrid cars.

      2014-16 we had cars at the back of the grid that were barely faster than GP2, they made no noise, double points in the final round of 2014.

      2016 turned into a decent season but only because Hamilton decided he didn’t need to give 100% commitment to beat Hamilton. His season was littered by regular errors that lost him the championship.

      But I was over Mercedes domination in 2014. Now we’re nearly in 2021 with Mercedes as dominant as they were in 2014. Hamilton vs Rosberg, Hamilton vs Bottas aren’t compelling matchups.

      2017-2019 wasn’t so bad but that’s only in comparison to 2014-16 where you virtually needed a double Mercedes DNF to have a non-Mercedes win.

      In isolation 2017-19 were dud years.

      2017 Mercedes won 12, Ferrari 5, RBR 3.
      2018 Mercedes won 11, Ferrari 6, RBR 4
      2019 Mercedes won 15, Ferrari 3, RBR 3

      And now we’re in 2020 where it’s 9 Mercedes, 1 RBR, 1 AT

      1. @David Bondo ‘barely faster than GP2’ – This was the case in 2014 only, not the other two.
        As for the first paragraph: 2001 as well.

      2. This post is a great summary of my feelings as well, David Bondo.

        And don’t forget, 2017-19 were only as interesting as they were because Ferrari cheated or skirted rules or something to get there. Granted we didn’t know it at the time, but looking at where Ferrari are now just shows how dominant Merc have been for 7 years, and what will soon be 8.

      3. The problem is that 2017, 2018 and 2019 should have been epic, but the drivers fighting Hamilton were just not up to the task.

        Take for instance 2019. Bahrain, Baku, Canada, Austria, Russia, Japan, Mexico should all have been won by Ferrari (after Verstappen blew Mexico). Spa, Monza and Singapore they did win. That’s 10 wins they should have had. Plus Verstappen should have won Monaco and Hungary (and actually Mexico).

        Ferrari would have had a heap more wins and there would have been a lot less wins for Hamilton/Mercedes.

    4. You’ve got Formula 2 already @jaymenon10. Also Indycars, Formula E, W Series… Lots of close racing, with boring engineering. Surely there’s a space for exciting engineering, then we can choose what to watch.

      What I personally do NOT want is Fake Racing, with contrived closeness so that winning doesn’t mean anything in particular about excellence.

      1. @Zann as the Formula E correspondent here, I would love to know exactly how you’ve put Formula E in those categories while talking about the powertrain of a car.

        Say what you like about spec chassis but Formula E has more powertrain manufacturers than F1 has *ever* had engine or power unit constructors currently and they most definitely are differentiated.

        1. I might be a bit out of touch with it @hazelsouthwell, but afaik it’s all limited isn’t it? The batteries are all the same, and the power is all the same, limited, and now twin motors are banned even. So they can make their own electromotors and electronics but if it makes any difference we don’t get to find out what or how.

          There is amazing interest from manufacturers as you say, but it’s amazing because it’s the perfect example of an awesome engineering contest being totally sacrificed for ‘close racing‘! Electric cars are an incredible, fast-moving development irl and the most interesting thing is the batteries and FE makes them all the same and not especially up to date.

          1. @Zann

            Yes, I would say you are a bit out of touch with it.

            Powertrain output and regen limiting is no different from specifying a V6 engine. It is simply the specification of the construction – the powertrains used wildly differ in efficiency and thermal management from front to back of the grid.

            It is not even remotely ‘all the same,’ even customer teams have extremely different packages, on track, to their suppliers due to the installation.

          2. Limiting power to an exact number of kW isn’t really like a petrol engine is it @hazelsouthwell, unless it’s a spec engine. It’s the output. So the series is a spec chassis with spec power, that is very spec!

            It could be very, very awesome with more free rein, but as it is what do viewers actually see? A lot of cars in a small space all looking the same and just with the odd 1% difference in battery usage and not much clue where that comes from, the driving or amazing motor design or installation or what.

            So the engineering interest has been sacrificed to have ‘close racing’, and anyone who values close racing above an engineering contest has FE there for them. We don’t need to have F1 added to that list.

            In F1, the team that combines the most awesome engineering with the most awesome racing wins, that’s how F1 has always been and it shouldn’t be lost imo. Especially as a lot of the complaining about it is really closet tribalism.

          3. @zann Exactly. It’s as spec as it gets. The cars look the same and the bits you don’t see deliver the exact same performance.

            Also, Formula E is running more at F3 spec really.

  2. The article about the planned Rio circuit is shocking. I know its not new news, but seeing all the facts laid out there has really hit it home.

    Why anyone thinks this is a good idea is beyond me. F1 wants to be carbon neutral does it? Seriously? No, not serious, they are virtue-signalling and will say whatever they can that will increase their share value.

    This means that the only hope we have of the Rio circuit not going ahead is that their share value would take a huge knock because of the backlash (unlikely), Hamilton appeals to Liberty’s conscience (almost no chance) or the manufacturers in F1 lobby Liberty to not go ahead because they will be tarnished by association at a time when car manufacturers are going ‘green’. I guess that’s the best bet.

    If it goes ahead then Liberty Media can add their name to the ‘faceless global money-at-no-object scumbag’ list.

    With that much money and power companies like them have a huge responsibility and the chance to make real change. Good or bad.

    1. @unicron2002
      Liberty show all the social conscience of a BP oil spill, I think leaning on the manufacturers would be the best bet.

      1. “they are virtue-signalling and will say whatever they can that will increase their share value”

        Welcome to the modern age.

    2. @unicron2002 Liberty Media is already in the ‘faceless global money-at-no-object scumbag’ list. Just look at their “We race as one (sponsored by Aramco)” campaign.

      1. @PaulK what was I thinking, I should have said ‘risen higher up the list’!

    3. Lewis saying something against it will be making a big impact @unicron2002. Remember Australia at the start of the year – he nuked that with one sentence! And after that apparently Liberty were checking with him before they scheduled any more races. And he’s mentioned conversations with F1 recently, as being among his activities. Brand Lewis and Brand F1 are pretty closely linked together these days.

    4. @unicron2002

      Why anyone thinks this is a good idea is beyond me.

      It is a great idea…for a very select group of politicians and businessmen who will make an absolute fortune from it, aswell as benefiting politically. In truth it will be an environmental disaster, probably be damaging economically overall, and if F1 allows it to go ahead it will make an absolute mockery of their intentions of becoming “carbon neutral” by 2030. I wonder if they would include the destruction of 200 hectares of forest in their carbon calculation?

      However, given that F1 has approved a new grand prix in Saudi Arabia, I doubt that environmental or moral considerations will be much of a factor in the decision to go ahead.

  3. Yes, using gloves on a road car might keep the steering wheel from getting dirty, but how does it give more grip? I don’t quite get this part.

    Zero chance for the Brazilian GP to happen next year. Too little notice for a track that hasn’t even started from scratch. 2022 at the earliest, i.e., not even at the tail-end of next season, which is about 12-13 months from now.

    1. @jerejj Pretty sure he means more grip on the steering wheel, not more grip with the tyres ;)

  4. In general, Ferrari not falling further back can be considered the “right direction.” But I’m not sure they are really making progress.

  5. Well they are heading for the end of the season. I guess that can be seen as the right direction for the hurting to stop.

  6. playstation361
    21st October 2020, 4:28

    Nobody knows. We will have to wait and watch.

Comments are closed.