perfectlap

I don't think Schumacher would have been much of a team builder either if he had to go to BAR or Toyota for example. Well certainly not 7X's WDC good.

It's one thing to build a team out of nothing but its quiet another to go to a team where you always have great engines and technical guys who know how wint titles behind you. Its not like Renaults and Ferraris never won any races.

ltc

Agreed.
The Schumacher era at Ferrari was 'the perfect storm'.

Todt, Brawn, Byrne, Schumacher...the team, the engine, the chassis, the tires, the budget, the testing. As I mentioned, it all came together in the race/strategy/drive.
I don't recall seeing anything even close to it in recent memory.

It all came together and IMHO Schumacher was the center of it all, respected by everyone on the team and again IMHO he earned that.

I just don't see that sort of capability in LMS.

jaje

Briatore has resigned:

http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headline...17161807.shtml

perfectlap

Well Alonso did beat the perfect storm...twice. On a smaller budget no less.
Ferrari fans have to deal with that.

perfectlap

Within weeks of sacking Piquet Jr....boy did that ever cost him.
I don't think Flabbio was going to be in F1 much longer anyway. But still a worse way to leave F1 could not have been imagined.
But this story has some serious legs. Alonso will have to face the music and I'm VERY eager to see how long Symmonds will get in the naughty chair. A deliberate crash has to come with it at least a one year suspension. Alonso will probably stripped of all his points and I'm sure Reanult/ING will want some of his pay to be returned. You can't buy this kind of negative press.

Veloce Raptor

So? he also got caught with stolen Ferrari secrets, whereupon he blackmailed his own team.

He is a turd, and there is no polishing available.






Professional Racing and Driving Coach

perfectlap

I thought that was Coughlin that got caught with the red file folder? LOL

Let it go, nobody said Alonso was a good character (certainly not any worse than Schumacher).

ALonso the Renault driver beat the best. That's why their hiring him now.

Veloce Raptor

I am not so sure they are.....






Professional Racing and Driving Coach

multi21

You must have forgotten the part where FOM/FIA were changing the rules EVERY Year to stop or at least limit Ferrari's winning. It's not good for the sport when a team is winning 14 out of 16 or 17 races per year as Ferrari did in the early 2000s. Of course, the 2005 1 tire rule did it.

Can you imagine if the NFL changed the rules every year so that they were biased toward the New England Patriots or Pittsburgh Steelers to limit them from winning? That's exactly what they did to Ferrari. No, no one can win every year, but they were not in decline from their dynasty at the time of the 2 Renault wins.

ltc

But, why would he resign when he KNEW that he was SO innocent that he hired attorneys to prosecute Piquet for blackmail?
Oh, maybe he wasn't as pure as the driven snow.

We should start a petition to bring back Eddie Jordan to run Renault

multi21

If Ferrari doesn't want Alonso and Alonso doesn't want to stay at Renault (if Renault even exists next year) where does Alonso go?

USF1? Imagine Alonso paired up with Danica? Don't cycles run together?

Veloce Raptor

Jonathan Summerton is one of the USF1 drivers. I doubt Danica or Fernanda would be the second.






Professional Racing and Driving Coach

perfectlap

^F1 screwed with rules to make the season interesting, fine. But Ferrari's pockets were deep enough to adapt. MORE than deep enough. Ferrari became the Yankees of F1. All the money in the world to spend (and did) but the White Sox and other teams with significantly less moolah came up with the World Series ring.
What's happening this season with Force India and what used to be Minardi is really nuts.
Ferrari and McLaren spend more on four little cars than all the NASCAR, World Rally, IRL, whatever is they call Champ car now and LeMans COMBINED. And still get beat by RedBool.

ew928

Was fun watching the 'Prancing Pony' get dogged by the KIngfisher Racer and not be able to shake it.
Really sucked that Webber got punted off and not be a championship contender.


Round and round the drama wheel turns, where Fernando lands, no one knows.

multi21

Ferrari are the Yankees of F1 or the Manchester United of futbal, etc. None of these organizations win every year, but they don't change the field of 100 meters to 75 meters to let other teams "Have a chance". You say "they screwed with the rules to make the season interesting, fine." In no other sport do they do this!! To gloss over it is short sided.

Of course they adapt. What else are they going to do? Steal secrets from McLaren or order their driver to crash into a K-Rail? The Yankees adapt by buying high priced free agents. What's your point?

Who cares if they spend more than NASCAR, Rally, IRL. F1 is not supposed to be a spec series (although Max Mosley intends to bring it that way).

BTW, you failed to mention Toyota F1 that out spends EVERYONE and I would say outspends 1/2 the grid combined. What has the big spending brought them?

F1 is ultra important to Ferrari and to be at the top or at the very least as close as it can get to the top, they need to spend the resources to get there. Being in F1 is part of the Ferrari mystic, their imagine and in their DNA -- far more than any other team on the grid.

Ever see a Ferrari TV commercial? Nope. Ever see a Ferrari ad in an auto magazine? nope. Ever hear a radio commercial for Ferrari? Nope. The hundreds of millions spent worldwide by other manufacturers is not spent by Ferrari. As long as their F1 team is going well, they'll be able to sell their few thousand road cars a year and vise versa. A ton of money is generated for the Scuderia by their successful F1 operations. If they were to be a back marker like they were for so many years before the Michael Schumacher years, that stream of revenue would decline quite quickly.