anzie - 02 November 2009 05:59 AM

I think Fisichella has the same sort of problems in the Ferrari that Heikki Kovalainen has in the McLaren. They just can't drive the cars the way they should be driven in the braking zones and turning into the corners.

There will be massive loss of time in the braking zones if the car does not feel right and is unstable and the driver lacks confidence in the car.

Heikki has been talking several times of locking the wheels being a problem. And of how he has had to change his driving style as to how he brakes and how he goes into the corners. His style has been to go into the corners at high-speed, but the current McLaren requires a different approach, it requires that the braking be done in a straight line - first you brake, then you stop braking, and only then you start turning into the corner. That is exactly the opposite to what Heikki has been doing before - he has gone to the corners at higher speeds and has dropped the speed during a longer distance.

In other words his style has been smooth, and this year he has had a car which requires a more angular driving style. He mentioned of this early in the season already, that he should do sharper turns - brake longer whilst in the straight, and that results in the line through the corner being a sharper turn.

Fisichella said telemetry shows he has 2nd gear on whilst Kimi still has 5th gear on when approaching a corner. He said he should first do all the braking, and then drop the gears. That's not what he has done all his career - he has dropped the gears whilst braking. Now the Ferrari car with the KERS does not work well if he does that.


We saw Luca Badoer drive very erratically in the braking zones - sometimes he was way off the optimal line going into the corner - he was like taking the inside line already in the straight when there was no other cars close to him. Looking at it in retrospect, perhaps that was a result of the car being unstable for him under braking. That can result in him going all over the place in the braking zones, resulting in taking very incorrect lines when going into the corners.


It's an unfortunate situation for all of these drivers that they faced a situation in which they would have to dramatically change their driving style. You can well ask how about their team-mates - did they have to change their style? To be honest I don't know much about this. Of Hamilton I recall reading that his braking style has been like the one that currently works well with the McLaren, but of Kimi, I have no idea if he had to change his driving style or not. Probably they all did have to change it, but by how much is they key question here. If your driving style was less smooth to begin with, then it was an easier transition. This I believe to be the case for Lewis at McLaren and for Kimi at Ferrari, when comparing them to Heikki and Fisichella.

The driving style they spent learning the most of their career - it's not going to be replaced with another by snapping your fingers.


I can imagine Luca Badoer feeling a little bit better now after having seen how Giancarlo Fisichella struggled as well in the Ferrari. Let's say, though, that Fisichella got much closer to Kimi's laptimes than Badoer did. There was a big difference - but in that I think the key was Badoer's lack of driving a modern F1 car and lack of racing during this century.

Putting Badoer in the car is in my opinion still a mistake from the management at Ferrari - they should have gone after someone like Fisichella already right away when they knew Massa can't race. They are Ferrari - they can get many drivers to change teams mid-season. So I address this mistake to the management at Ferrari and not to Badoer - he was put into an extremely difficult position by his team and it was brave from him to respond to the call. For that he should get our admiration.

This is an excellent observation, but also good reason why we say in the states the top drives get paid 'the big bucks.' Luca had driven the F-60 before unlike Fisicella. It is a compliment to both Raikonnen and Massa that they made as much of it as they did. And Massa moreso than Kimi at times; which I think shows a strength of a great athelete, he knows how to deconstruct they way he is driving and adapt to a new circumstance. Massa's unexpected injury probably caused Ferrari to make a lot of decisions most teams don't have to make, and it brought the problems with the testing ban to the fore.

I'm hoping that FOTA will re-visit the testing issue and get more time.

It's obvious it wasn't Luca Badoers driving that was causing the Ferrari to end up 20th on the grid. I was expecting Fisichella to do much better than he did. What I don't understand is why Fisichella almost won a race with the Force India and then wanted to jump into a slower car especially when he was acclamated. The other is why was Raikkonen doing so much better?

spartacus - 06 November 2009 12:40 PM

It's obvious it wasn't Luca Badoers driving that was causing the Ferrari to end up 20th on the grid. I was expecting Fisichella to do much better than he did. What I don't understand is why Fisichella almost won a race with the Force India and then wanted to jump into a slower car especially when he was acclamated. The other is why was Raikkonen doing so much better?

This is probably a case of the grass being greener on the other side. I believe that most of us thought that any F1 driver on the grid would have been able to score points driving a Ferrari. I even thought that Button winning form this year was just the car. Most of us now understand that the entire combo needs to work. I bet Fisi got caught with his pants down in this case.

Apology excepted.

What is the name that Ferrari is giving the new cars for the 2010 season?

Is it the F61?

I really want to see it.

As for driving habits, I have to agree that Mr.Raikkonen does have a very different driving style, over Mr. Baboers and Mr. Fisichella.

However, consider that there are roughly 2 hours of practice before every Grand Prix. In addition, consider that they all know how Mr. Raikkonen was beating them on corner entry, and exit.

It really should not take long to come to grips with the way to drive a Ferrari.

If I got it correctly Fisi was having issues with all the steering wheel gizmos. Has Badoer driven the car since they introduced the standard ECU and banned TC and all the other driver aids?

That maybe the issue, you are correct.

No Traction Control, and no ABS.

Maybe that is what messed up Mr. Baboers.

As for the steering gizmos. It has been referenced before by many in the know about these things.

However, with all the track time that the Drivers get before any Grand Prix, turning left and right, is something that should be adjusted to.

To my way of thinking this much about Kimi and Massa as drivers. I too need to apologize.

Bill

brandspro - 01 November 2009 02:39 PM

How much better might they both have done had they BEEN ALLOWED TO TEST!!!!!

A bit of irony, here. Luca Badoer is Ferrari's in-house test driver. He's responsible for testing just about everything the company builds, both in the racing department and the street cars. If a Ferrari works and handles well, you can thank Luca for it.

I agree, GreyWolf74.

However, if he tested all that is Ferrari on the racetrack in particular, why did he, (not so much Mr. Fisichella), have problems keeping up with the rest of the field?

Is it a Ferrari conspiracy to have Mr. Massa look good?

I do not believe in conspiracy theories... I'm just throwing it out there.

Luca was usually 2ish seconds off the pace of the rest of the backmarkers. Fisi was a couple tenths off Kimi in most cases. Luca doesn't look as bad, but you can't put him up there with Fisi and fully blame the car for both of them being slower than many thought they would be.