Formula One is the pinnacle of motor sport, but the way some teams have been acting you would question that remark.
We have had two races in the Formula One season thus far in the 23 year race calendar and what is very noticeable is the Ferrari no show. We know they changed Mattia Binotto at the end of last season and replaced him with Frederic Vasseur the ex Alfa Romeo boss.
What we knew last season was the team was struggling with reliability with their power units/engines. After a number of failures the team decided to turn their engines down reducing the power output hoping to find more reliability. Even though this reduced performance they had no choice as they exceeded the allotted number of engines allowed and took the grid penalties towards the end of the season.
Fast forward to this season and Ferrari have already suffered a 10 place grid penalty. This however was not engine related which kind of makes it worse as it was electronic issues. Teams are allowed two electric control units per season and LeClerc is already on number 3 and the reason why he had to take a 10 place grid penalty in only the second race.
Topping this off both Ferrari cars have been fitted with 2 new engines already and we have only had 2 races. teams are allowed 3 engines per driver for the entire season and now they have to complete another 21 races knowing they only have 1 spare left before they receive grid penalties yet again.
Reliability issues are still hampering the team and is going to be the biggest concern again this season. The team will obviously have to turn down the power yet again to try and eek out as many races as they can with what they have left and and penalties look very likely to happen again this year.
The problem is this has been going on for two years already and the team has to resolve the reliability issues not only for their own results but their overall company image. Doing well in Formal One sells motor cars and these being high end sports cars asking top dollar failure especially on the reliability front is very dangerous.
Mercedes over the past decade have boosted their sales through their performances and Ferrari need to be showing the best they have as this is a sales pitch by what they are delivering. Personally I am flabbergasted that they could find themselves in such a mess as they are nowhere further down the line to resolving their problems than what they encountered last year.
Frederik Vasseur is really in the hot seat and even though they are only two races into the season this is his problem and he cannot blame his predecessor. Results matter or you will find yourself replaced by someone who can get things right.
Ferrari are already 61 points off top spot in the constructors and lagging behind Aston Martin and Mercedes by 12 points. Mercedes are rebuilding their entire car due to poor performance and I suggest Ferrari look at what they have to change things around. Turning the engine mode down will not get you the results that are expected of the team so they need to act fast or they will be left behind and this season will be over before it has even started.
I don't give them much chance even now knowing what they have achieved over the last 14 months and expect them to be hanging on to 4th spot and that is not even guaranteed.
Featuring drivers such as. "Carlost Sainz" :D
I think Ferrari is now a midfield team that manages to sometimes challenge for a podium. :P
The qualifying times are certainly there, but the race craft and race pace can't compete with the others.
Hi there, eye opener these things from you and the writer. I used to follow the Formula 1 pretty closely in the days of Michael Schumacher, in his glorious Ferrari days.
When I hear things like one spare engine left to prosecute 21 races and your questioning the driver they have now, it tells some story of the decline.
Cheers and regards to Mr. @cryptoandcoffee
They can use additional engines, but it just means starting further back in the field. Throughout the season, other teams will go over their allocations, but there's another element in modern F1, too - the cost cap, which means that teams only have $x to spend each season.
That means that most teams should be aiming for a balance of reliability and power.
Oh ok there's still room to play with, howbeit with a costly price attached.
Furthermore, there's the said spending cap to grapple with. Indeed a lot of take-home assignments in Ferrari's hands, them being 61 points off top spot,as I read above.
Thanks for the swift feedback. Refreshing.
I'm just grateful that there's anyone else on HIVE willing to talk about F1 :D
Sounds like folks don't engage much on this topic.
What I know is that the writer is the person I often see talking about F1 and car racing in general.
If you check me out, you probably would be amazed what I'm doing here. But that's what being in Hive should be about, communicating across board.
I saw a post here some days back about a tennis player who is 93-yrs-old, not just playing tennis for fitness, BUT STILL TAKES PART IN TOURNAMENTS. I was amazed his post had only 2 or 3 votes and no comments. Firstly, my regular sporting engagement here isn't tennis, secondly I absolutely don't know the writer, but I added my support and a comment.
I hardly see a spontaneous no-strings-attached interest in posts here(at least in Sports Talk). It seems everyone is in it solely for something personal.
Ok I saw a spaminator downvote in his post. So is that why folks avoided his post like a rotten egg? Do they all know why the writer has a downvote? So why the apparent judgemental attitude? Or someone says, the writer rarely blogs, so he deserves to get low patronage.
I'm not against hardworking diligent writers,reaping due rewards and even receiving privileges. I'm not even saying that lazy or inconsistent writers should be indulged.
All I'm saying is, we should think outside the box as often as possible, we should come out of our comfort zones...and "like" a post, based on it's own merits. Also, please go outside your preferred sport and encourage a total stranger writing on another sport. Don't consider the person's reputation number, if the post is good.
That old man, could be recommended to the Guinness World Book of Records, I think that's sufficient reason to vote the post massively, eventhough perhaps the writer is not regular or whatever negatives one may think. There are exceptions to rules, init?
I hope things improve.
Cheers man
I've said it for a long time that content should make HIVE a better place, not content about HIVE. :)
In the last week or so, I've taken to trawling through new and following authors that have interesting or high-effort post, and I've been engaging. I haven't immediately been upvoting the post, but if they engage in commentary and quality discussion about the content, then they get a vote on their comment and the post.
I'm just waiting for my previously leased out hive to come back so that I have more voting power to reward those authors more handsomely.
As for me, F1 is the only "sport" I really watch, but like you, I think I would find an article about a 90 year old playing tennis competitively very interesting. I'm off to go track that down now.
May be they were over confident and now their over confident is making them stay behind in the tournament. AGree with you now they don't have any chance to finish at top position.
Well, I have a feeling that they are being relaxed which is bad. Ferrari is supposed to be on the table.
I just hope that they come back stronger.