Debate: Ferrari throwing the championship away?

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What on earth happened to Ferrari?

At the start of the year it was if the Schumacher dream team had never gone away. Kimi Raikkonen cruised to victory at Melbourne with one hand on the wheel.

Despite a hiccup in Malaysia Felipe Massa was the man to beat in Bahrain and Spain.

But now McLaren have scored three one-twos on the trot and suddenly Ferrari are looking over their shoulders and finding BMW closer than ever. So what’s wrong?

Plenty of fans are voicing their displeasure at the drivers – particularly Raikkonen, whom many expected to blow Massa away. Michael Schumacher is sitting on the pit wall but many fans want him in the car.

Others suggest Ferrari’s new technical team have lost their way with the radical F2007. One source even suggested that a recent accident in Ferrari’s wind tunnel set the team back.

Have Ferrari fouled up – or are McLaren just doing a better job?

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Tags: f1 / formula one / formula 1 / grand prix / motor sport

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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8 comments on “Debate: Ferrari throwing the championship away?”

  1. Both!

  2. Yeah, a bit of both. As much as I disliked the man, I have to admit that we are now seeing just how much Michael Schumacher did for Ferrari – and what happens when it isn’t done anymore…

    As for McLaren, they’re always like this if they get the car right. Just keep getting better and better.

  3. I still think Kimi can keep up in the Ferrari, he just needs to qualify better and work on his starts…. Seems like the Ferrari does awful in traffic…. Only makes sense seeing as they didn’t expect to have to be behind other cars.

    Like has been said all along, If you can make it through the first corner in 1st then you basically won the race… This is a lesser known plan of Bernie’s to run the race on a Saturday and call in Qualifying. Sunday will be used to parade the cars around and show off sponsors.

  4. There’s no question I’m in the minority but I never thought much of Kimi and I’ve said so for some time. I also questioned how well his personality would fit in the Ferrari ‘family’. Now we are getting a picture. Massa on the other hand …… always struck me a a bit timid when driving lesser cars he seemed to just let anyone who was supposed to be faster pass him, now he’s in the faster car and the boy has matured perfectly. The answer to the question……BOTH. We’re all in agreement, the Ferrari technical team has been shuffled, Schumacher is gone, Kimi is less than expected, and I read the rolling road in the wind tunnel failed and on the other side McLaren have got an improved car and they’ve got Alonso and Hamilton and they’ve got the media on their side!

  5. I think that the biggest problem is that Ferrari have lost some direction technically, with Ross Brawn taking his sabbatical this year, I think they are missing his expert leadership.
    But that is not taking anything away from McLaren who seem to have got everything pulling together all at the same time.

  6. Actually, everyone here is on the same hymn sheet. Ferrari is half-a-notch worse than last year, McLaren half-a-notch better, suddenly the Scuderia are a whole notch lower than McLaren.

    38, I very much agree with you on the Kimi-Massa comparison. Schumi’s mentoring is helping Felipe a lot. Kimi could really use it right now.

    Gareth, Ross Brawn is sorely missed. The earlier he confirms a return to Ferrari, the better.

  7. And to make matters worse now they have the Stepney problem:

    https://www.racefans.net/2007/06/21/ferrari-technician-in-criminal-investigation/

    Is it related to the drop-off in performance?

  8. I’ve always thought Kimi a touch overrated, and due to Massa’s previous involvement with the team I thought he would have the legs to beat Kimi this year – but with Kimi starting the season so well I thought that might dent Massa’s hopes a bit.

    However, it doesn’t seem to have done Kimi any good at all! Massa is driving much better than Kimi, for whatever reason.

    McLaren always build fast cars, in the past they have been fragile but this year they seem to have the balance right as they are much more reliable – possibly due to the regulations basically rewarding reliable cars as much as fast ones.

    Hopefully Ferrari will step their game up a bit and make the season a bit more than just a fight between the two McLaren drivers!

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