“We are going through a
difficult period and there is no point denying that our
start to the season was a disappointing one.” Going into
the Turkish Grand Prix, the fourth round of the
championship, Nikolas Tombazis, Scuderia Ferrari’s chief
designer does not pull his punches when describing the
mood within the squad after the first three races.
“We hoped to be further forward, more competitive, but
it was not the case,” said Nikolas. “The problem is
linked mainly to the aerodynamics and can be divided
into two parts. The first revolves around a lack of
correlation between data from the wind tunnel and that
seen at the track: we are reacting to correct this
problem. Furthermore, we must admit that, even without
this problem, we would not have been in a position to
fight for the wins in the first three races. We have
tried to see if our approach was too conservative and we
realised that, for various reasons, we were neither
reactive nor aggressive enough in the development
stages. We have made some adjustments to our working
practices to try and focus much more on car performance.
We have changed the working practice in the wind tunnel
and in terms of the development of the aerodynamic
design side. Based on this, I expect that the results of
these changes should be seen in the upcoming races.”
There will already be some new components in Istanbul,
as Tombazis confirms. “The package was drawn up prior to
the Chinese Grand Prix, therefore we have not been able
to make significant changes to it in these past weeks.
Definitely, we will have new wings, both front and rear
and new brake ducts. Last week, we ran an aero test with
Jules Bianchi at the wheel at Vairano. I can’t say if
this step forward will be enough, but I do expect to see
the consequences of this change in approach over the
next few races, because clearly, if we want to close the
gap, we have to do something over and above the norm.”
Another criticism levelled at the Scuderia in ever more
strident terms concerns a presumed lack of innovation.
“Unfortunately, we cannot claim this accusation is
entirely without foundation,” was the Scuderia Chief
Designer’s honest response. “At the moment, we don’t
have a winning car and, on those of our competitors we
can see innovative solutions introduced in a more
aggressive fashion than we have done. Maybe we were a
bit too passive in our approach: we did not push hard
enough in some areas of development and unfortunately,
the results can be seen on track. Now we are reacting
and we want to rediscover the spirit of innovation which
maybe we have lost a bit over the past two years.
Despite that, I am convinced that Ferrari will be
competitive again. We have had a disappointing start to
the season. In order to recover from it, I think it is
important to understand what mistakes we made and we
have analysed this with much honesty and open
mindedness. I am therefore convinced that we can get
back to winning again.”
