“Ferrari have talented people and they are peed off” – Costa

2011 Malaysian Grand Prix

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Felipe Massa, Ferrari, Sepang, 2011

Ferrari technical director Aldo Costa says the team “need to be even more aggressive in terms of development of the car” to catch Red Bull and McLaren.

The fastest Ferrari was almost a full second slower than pole sitter Sebastian Vettel in qualifying.

Fernando Alonso admitted yesterday the team would not be able to challenge for victory this weekend. Ferrari spent much of Friday practice conducting fixed-speed aerodynamic tests instead of working on their set-up.

Costa admitted: “We are not where we thought we were this winter: we lack performance.

“The time we spent yesterday on aerodynamic testing came out of the time available to work out the right set-up on the car and on studying the behaviour of the tyres.

“However, between yesterday and today, we have made progress and I think that showed in qualifying and I hope that will also be the case tomorrow in the race. Clearly, I don’t expect us to be as quick as the top four, but I am sure we will do our best.”

He said not all the updates introduced in the Barcelona test had worked as planned, which explained why the team found itself not on the pace of the front-runners in Melbourne:

“At Maranello, we have a lot of talented people and they are very peed off with this situation and I know that everyone is very keen to fight back.

“We are working on different areas. There will be something new in China, and something more significant in Turkey and for the rest of the season.

“Will it be enough? I don’t know the answer to that now. Clearly we have to push harder than the others because we have to make up the ground we have lost, which today is greater than was the case last year. We have to change our approach in order to succeed.”

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    Keith Collantine
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    42 comments on ““Ferrari have talented people and they are peed off” – Costa”

    1. Let’s hope in China they can get within 4 tenths of the front runners. Turkey will be interesting though, especially since a lot of teams will bring major upgrades to that race.

      1. They need a bloody new front wing, that’s what the car needs.

        That bulky thing they have now is a piece of ****.

        1. Not that I agree too much, but Butterfly showed us all how to swear properly. Costa should be taking notes here ..

          At the moment they aren’t at the top, lets see what they can bring. They won’t be the only team to have a package for Turkey, but lets hope theirs is the best.

          1. Their front wing does look like crap, I hope they can bring the fight. I would much rather see a 6 way fight.

      2. Yes because they might bring something to earn 5 tenths on Red Bull, and maybe Red Bull will bring something to extend their lead on them by 5 tenths and the gap will remain the same.

        1. Or maybe the Red Bull has already reached near it’s peak and can’t be developed anymore?

          Unlikely but still possible.

          1. Maybe they should do what Mclaren did. CTRL-C, CTRL-V.

            1. Or steal McLaren’s dossier?

        2. ahh, the world of Maybe. It’s not far from the land of Couldhavebeen, and the Kingdom of Whatif.

          :)

          1. I hear they’re getting a race in 2014.

      3. China will not be realistic. Its only a few days away, that might bring them a few tenths but not the second they need.

    2. Despite it’s speed in comparison to other cars behind, it does look a bit of a dog in certain fast corners. They’ll sort it in no time.

    3. They used to have talented people e.g Todt, Brawn, Byrne, now all that’s left is a bunch of diletants led by the biggest of them all in the form of Domenicali. It’s hard to be a Ferrari fan nowadays. They are lucky to have Alonso pulling them out of the midfield.

      1. I think that’s a little on the extreme side, don’t you think?

        Did you see anything of them at the back-end of last year. It was theirs to lose.

        Admittedly they did lose it though.

        1. Yeah, maybe I was a bit too sour, but you have to admit that the only reason why Alonso was leading the championsip last year was because Vettel was hitting trouble a lot. Ferrari had been the fastest car only on 3 occasions : Hockenheim, Monza and Singapore. Any other success was due to luck. Aldo Costa is pretty mediocre, when was the last time he produced the best car of the grid?

          1. you have to admit that the only reason why Alonso was leading the championsip last year was because Vettel was hitting trouble a lot.

            Also Ferrari made a huge step with their car when they put the exhaust-blown diffuser on at Valencia.

            1. Of course they made a huge step, anyone who copies Red Bull makes one, but it wasn’t enough I guess.

          2. But you can’t reduce someone’s success to if’s and but’s. Alonso still had to finish.

          3. To finish first you must finish. Red bull last year could not finish. They kept breaking down and both Vetell and Webber made silly mistakes. If Alonso was in that car no doubt the championship would have been won well before the last race.

            Development race last year was pretty even. Redbull have something that no other team has yet worked out.

          4. Actually they did a good job of getting their car up to speed by mid season last year. And they were second to Red Bull after that until almost the end of the year.

            But I would bet Alonso feels just about the same frustration about that car and the team right now as you do :-(

        2. it was never ferrari’s to lose.

          only red bull. their car at times was 0.5 secs+ faster. it should of been well over by september/oct really.

          ferrari hauled it back. ok they made errors along the way. but not as many as red bull.

      2. We’re talking about the same Ferrari that won the constructors’ championship three seasons ago, right?

        1. In 2008 McLaren had a better car. They didn’t win the constructor’s championship because they had only one “functional” driver (Heikki was always lost somewhere in the back).

          1. I a not saying Heikki is in Hamos league however he did cop there raw end of the stick many times. Fat fueled mostly with priority strategy always going to Hamo.

      3. It’s hard to be a Ferrari fan nowadays.

        If there is one thing i’ve learned in any sport it’s this.

        Supporters Support, Fans blow hot and cold.

        Ferrari will be back, just like they did last year, if anything they will probably get up to pace a lot quicker than last year and challenge at the front for the majority of 11 or 12 races.

        1. Megawatt Herring
          9th April 2011, 23:24

          If you think It’s hard to be a Ferrari fan just think of what it is like for a Williams fan, they have been waiting for their comeback for years now.

    4. I think Alonso was .932 off pole. Shocking stuff :/ I didn’t expect them to be anywhere near pole but that was worse than I thought. Still…one hell of a resurgence last year so it would be foolish to write them off yet.

      1. But last year Ferrari had a good handling car that was consistent in the way it behaved. It’s not simply down to a lack of downforce like the F10 had, it’s more than that. It’s understeering on corner entry and oversteering on exit – a general lack of grip from the tyres. The F10 was a brilliant development platform, this 150o Italia has some more fundamental issues and slapping on more downforce isn’t going to remedy them.

    5. Ferrari had a similar gap to the front in Turkey last year, and were back at the front within a few weeks, so I wouldn’t rule out a three-horse race for the title yet.

      1. Ferrari need Mclaren to really compete with Red Bull and need the wins shared amougst their 4 drivers to limit the damage for Alonso (im guessing Massa doesnt come into the equation for them really) and hope that they make the same step as last year come the European races. They turned it around brilliantly last season when they went from 3rd fastest to clear 2nd. In Alonso they have someone that could keep a sinking battleship afloat with a bucket to bail the water with, so theres always hope.

        And it does make it all the more exciting with more drivers.

    6. Copied Red Bull’s sidepod outlet? Check
      Wing flexing? Don’t know how
      High raking: might look at it
      McLaren sidepods: Impossible to do now
      Octopus exhaust: Maybe!

      Ferrari have very few options to get that big leap like last year, adding on the F-Duct and EBD. There’s not much scope except for making improvements that will be too small and probably matched by their rivals.

      1. It is one thing to copy others design and totally another to make it work for your car. McLaren found the it the hard way but Ferrari impressively incorporate two new technologies into the car.

        So I wouldn’t rule them out yet. The gap is huge but the potential is there to be unlocked.

        1. What I mean is that there’s nothing left to copy that would give them such a huge boost and close up to the others.

    7. They are “peed off” that they didn’t properly get out of the starting blocks this season. But if they don’t get their problems solved it will be worse – they will get “peed on”.

    8. Ferrari are one of the great names of the sport and have acres of facilities, some good technical people, and great spirit.

      I have no doubt that I speak on behalf of thousands of F1 fans all over the world, when I say:

      “HA! Suck it you arrogant insufferable egotistical deluded self-aggrandising *a*nk***!”

      Ahem.

    9. HounslowBusGarage
      9th April 2011, 21:28

      “Will it be enough? I don’t know the answer to that now. Clearly we have to push harder than the others . . .”
      Damn. I didn’t realise that Legard now writes scripts for Ferrari!

      1. If it was Legard he would have said

        “Woof! Will it be enough? I don’t know the answer to that now. We’ve got to go up the hill, pushing on. Right now it’s Red Bull from Mclaren from Red Bull from Mclaren. This is exactly what Ferrari don’t want. Clearly we have to push harder than the others . . .” :P Sorry, couldn’t resist!

    10. Very strange how it has gone quiet from Luca de Montezemolo’s end. I hope Briatore doesn’t end up being right when he sai Ferrari should just scrap this season and focus on next century season.

      1. Monti is now working at going into Italian politics to free the country of girl fiddling Berlusconi.

    11. The Ferrari is a good car, the issue they have is to do with the tyres and balance on the first couple of laps. When the tyres are new and times are there. In Melbourne a mate spoke to some Renault and Ferrari engineers after the race and they all said the same thing. The tyres produce one or maybe 2 super quick laps then start degrading. The key to quali is getting the time on that one lap. IE bring temps up to the right operating window. The only teams capable of doing that is Redbull and Mclaren they know that temperature and have balanced the car to get it really quickly thus produce a laptime. In the race, the ferrari is consistent, and we saw in melbourne Alonso was very consistent and very quick. 9.9 times out of 10 if your quick at barcelona your quick most places. I dont think Ferrari would have run under weight or illegal at Barcelona. Everybody was saying they were consistent and quick. I think the issues is tyre related and how the car uses them. No so much downforce. I think the car heats the rears to much and does not produce enough heat in the front tyres. So you get the imbalance of oversteer/understeer in fast and slow corners over the first couple of laps when the tyres are new. Then the temp balances out and the car is more driveable but by then the tyres are worn.

    12. At the moment they are falling back,no doubt that what ever we thought about their pace in the winter were wrong. Now they really needs to pack together to fight back. I don’t think they will have a major update until Turkey.We all want to see this team fight back in the WC.

    13. Jared404 (@)
      10th April 2011, 3:45

      Ferarri is a very proud team – not fast – but very proud.

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