End of Summer Break: Changes for Ferrari

With just a week to go until the race in Belgium, the end of the one month long summer break for all teams is almost over. At the halfway point in the season, Sebastian Vettel leads the driver championship with a 38 point lead over Kimi and Red Bull also have the lead in the Constructors' with Mercedes and Ferrari rounding out the top 3 respectively. It hasn't been quite the season Ferrari were hoping for. By Ferrari standards, third place isn't considered massively successful and with the competition these days, it doesn't look very easy for Ferrari to be successful.  Fernando Alonso is third in the drivers' championship, however, teammate, Felipe Massa, has had a nightmare of a season and sits in seventh. Despite being only seventh, much of the bad this season for Felipe is not his fault. Ferrari have not given him the most reliable car and it seems race after race Massa either crashes, breaks down or gets a puncture. In order for Ferrari to turn this season into the completely right direction, changes to the cars are going to have to be made. For Massa's car, it's simple, make sure it can complete a race and keep pace with the heads of the pack. Massa has the capability to be a winning driver, but he's going to have to have confidence in himself which comes from having confidence in his car. Alonso seems to be able to work his car up to par with the likes of Mercedes and Red Bull, however the car can lack grip when not on the correct
tyres and tyres also seem to wear quite quickly. What Ferrari is the best at, is starts. Off the line, no one can keep up with a Ferrari. This can be taken as a great advantage if Ferrari can have some good qualifying sessions and have both drivers start near the front.

The next race in Belgium this coming weekend will be a very difficult one. It's a very technical track with the legendary "swoop" at turns 2,3 and 4. There's no clear-cut favorite for who can win this Grand Prix as only 6 different drivers have won at this track more than once. It can potentially be a fantastic weekend for Ferrari or a disaster of one as well. Either way, Ferraristi and F1 fans of all teams and drivers will just be happy that Formula One is back!

Media Banned from Pitlane

Today, news came out from the FIA that they are not allowing media of any sort in the pitlane for the next race in Hungary. It is unknown whether this is temporary or is a permanent solution. This was done because of an incident in Germany when a tyre came off of Mark Webber's Red Bull and hit a cameraman standing near by. Fortunately, the cameraman was okay and had no serious injuries. However, this is a bad move by the FIA in my opinion. If this is only a temporary fix, then I'm okay with it, but if not, it is a huge mistake. Will Buxton had some very good points on Twitter(@willbuxton) regarding this:
      

"We accept the risks when entering the pitlane. Risks for practice nowhere near as great as in race situation. Hope this is reviewed soon."

 

"We don't get garage access either, so information gathering in practice sessions will rely on teams upping PR game hugely."

 

"If a mechanic, engineer, team boss, FIA scrutineer or doctor had been hit by a tyre, would that profession now be banned from pitlane?"

 

"The issue I have is not with cameras in pitlane but in the gathering of information in practice sessions. That's why we were in the pits."

 

"What now? Allow every TV crew / pit reporter into every garage? Full of fuel, KERS, working mechanics. Put all pit reporters on pitwall?"

 

"Do we expect a constant stream of info from team PRs to us on paddock side? We'll never know who is running what, when."

 

"How are any of we pit reporters now supposed to bring you fans the info that you need and that is our job to give in the practice sessions?"

 

"That's why my back is up. Because you as fans will lose out. For everyone's sake, I hope this is only an interim solution."

 

"I would also like to point out there is an FIA Media Communications Group. (Formerly Press Council.) I sit on it as TV representative."

 

"Body includes journos, snappers, web and radio. As far as I am aware, we have not yet been asked for our opinions on the topic by FIA or FOM"

 

My favorite point was actually retweeted by Buxton from John Noble(NobleF1) saying:

"Am I alone in thinking it shouldn't be about removing people from the path of wheels? F1 needs to stop wheels coming off in the first place"

 

The problem is not people standing in the pitlane, but the tyres flying off of the cars. In IndyCar, they use drills that will not release unless the tire is securely fasten onto the car and there is rarely any problems like this in IndyCar. The FIA don't need to ruin the fans experience by not letting them call on the inside information that people like Will Buxton manage to provide for us. Not only does it hurt the fans, but it also makes the media's like much harder. Hopefully the FIA realizes this is not the right way to go about this issue and allows the media back in pitlane. It is impossible to make a pitlane completely safe.

German Grand Prix

One of the jewel races of the season didn't fail to disappoint, especially the Germans, as Sebastian Vettel hung on for dear life in the closing laps to take the win. It was a fairly clean race, with no collisions except for a cameraman and a tire. Mark Webber went in for a pit stop and his rear right tire wasn't fitted properly. He took off as his crew was calling him back, but it was too late has the tire fell off and knocked a cameraman down and Webber had to be pushed back to get the tire fitted the right way and he found himself at the back of the pack. Ferrari tried a different strategy by starting the race on the hard tires and let everyone else wear down their soft tires. Although, in the very early stages of the race, Felipe Massa had what appeared to be a mechanical failure and pulled off the track and was out of the race. Once again it was up to Alonso to save the day for Ferrari, which he did. He kept a good pace for the entire race even when he was feeling uncomfortable with the tires he was on and managed to stay at front of the pack throughout. Everything heated up with about 5 laps to go when Raikkonen was chasing down Vettel for first and Alonso was quickly catching Grosjean for third. Alonso was on a new soft tires whereas Grosjean was on 6 lap old softs. Unfortunately for Ferrari, Alonso couldn't catch Grosjean and just missed the podium. If there was just 1 or 2 laps more in the race, I think we would've been seeing Kimi with the victory and Alonso on the podium instead of Grosjean. However, more importantly, Pirelli made changes to the tires from last week in Britain and there were no problems for the any of the drivers except for Mercedes who continue to fight tire wear. In the end, it was a fantastic race and nice to see a German win if it wasn't going to be a Ferrari.

British Grand Prix

It was one of the wildest races of the season. Fernando Alonso qualified 9th and Massa was 11th and it looked hopeless for Ferrari to get a good result. Luckily, absolute chaos unfolded and teams that were thought to have bad days had good ones and vise versa. Lewis Hamilton, who started on pole position, blew his tire on just the 7th lap and then just a little bit later Felipe Massa blew his tire on the exact same spot! In practice session 2 on Friday, Sergio Perez blew his same tire on the same spot as well. It was one of the oddest occurences I've seen in my time watching Formula 1. Some people were saying it was a faulty track design as the Pirelli tires couldn't cope with the tremendous pressure from turns 4 and 5.  Alonso said after the race that he didn't think it was the track, but something wrong with the tires and Pirelli will have to act fast as everyone goes to Germany in just a week. In my opinion, I think something was wrong with the tires, because there's countless corners like turn 5 in Britain and there were never any problems like this. After Massa blew his tire, he went to the pits and found himself at or near last place and for the first time in a while, the race became rather "normal". However, drama returned when race leader Sebastian Vettel's gearbox went kaputt and every other driver on the track pounced on the opportunity. Alonso, who was in the pits right when it happened, found himself all the way in 7th, but roared his way back to finish 3rd. Mark Webber overtook Kimi to take second as Rosberg finished with the victory. Massa battled all the way back to finish an amazing 6th and Ferrari found themselves with a very good result after a poor qualifying and chaotic start and finish to a tremendous race. Somehow, Mercedes still get a victory after Hamilton who started pole fell back after his tire exploded and then Rosberg takes over after Vettel retired. Pirelli really have to figure something out because all season long tires have been a problem and today everything just exploded into chaos(litterly). Hopefully, by next weekend atleast one problem can be worked out so we don't have an extremely unsafe, yet exciting race as we did today.

How Ferrari Will Succeed in Britain

In order for Ferrari to have success in the British GP this coming weekend, Fernando Alonso will have to have a huge qualifying and continue it into the race.  Massa is almost guaranteed a mechanical failure or a crash so Fernando is our only hope.  As long as the Mercedes haven't completely figured out their tire problems, I'm confident Alonso can qualify in the top 3 or even take pole.  Alonso has had a lot of success at Silverstone and there's no reason he won't be able to continue it.  As long as the track can stay dry(which it won't because it's England) then that would be a huge advantage for Ferrari as they tend to struggle in the wet.  If by some bizarre chance Massa doesn't have any problems, expect him to have a good weekend and massively help Ferrari's chances of taking the World Championship.

Ferrari

Using basically only one driver all season, Alonso, Ferrari is actually having an alright season.  Although, if Enzo was with us, he'd be fuming right now and not only Massa, but Alonso as well would've been fired by now.  Fernando has won 2 races so far in this still young season.  In China and in his homeland of Spain.  His Ferrari has looked liked it has had a little more pace this season.  Massa's car is doing the same as he's also had a good year so far.  Besides Monaco and Bahrain, Massa has been finishing much higher than last season.  Crashing the exact same way twice at Monaco shows that if Ferrari can just get him a better car, Massa can be compete for a podium finish race after race.  However, I do think Massa should leave.  Ferrari is the flagship team of Formula 1, in order to be a dominate team once again, we're going to need better drivers.  Rumours have been going around that Vettel may be on his way to Ferrari next season alongside Alonso.  If Ferrari can get a good car for both drivers, that would be an incredible pairing.  Although, none of that even matters right now.  All I care about is this upcoming weekend in Montreal and hoping for a Ferrari win.