Ferrari began the season hoping to win two or three races in 2015. They brought engine upgrades in Montreal and Monza which have seen the red team creeping ever closer to the dominant Mercedes F1 cars. Yet even as recently as the Russian GP, James Allison was cautiously optimistic about 2016 when he said, “We have got a good chance of being competitive with or without in-season development”, adding that he believed Ferrari had made up 8 tenths of the 1.6 second defect they faced to Mercedes in 2015.
Just three races later, Ferrari team boss Maruzio Arrivabene is now making bolder claims about Maranello’s challenge to Brackley. “If you want my honest expectation [for 2016], it is not to be closer to them but to be in front of them. I tell you that with humility, but we are closer even now so we must be in front next year.”
Much of the gains are attributed to the Ferrari power unit department to whom Arrivabene gives credit. “I want to take this occasion to thank them because, for us, the engine is the core of the car,” and he claims there are big opportunities to find even more chunks of time in the chassis and aero departments.
There were a handful of laps during the Brazilian GP where clearly the Mercedes pair were pushing each other and running close to flat out. Rosberg received a message that suggested Lewis was deploying all his engine modes in an attempt to pass the German shortly after the first round of pit stops.
From laps 16 to 31 at Interlagos, the average lap time defect from Hamilton to Vettel was a mere 0.169 of a second. Back in Sochi, this same gap throughout the race was closer to a second a lap. In the rain hit Austin race the Hamilton/Vettel average lap time differential was much smaller and in almost dry conditions towards the end of the race had fallen to around 0.25s.
The disaster that was the Mexican GP for Ferrari means little could be gleaned on the Ferrari game of Mercedes catchup, but next time out in Abu Dhabi will almost definitely be dry, and Vettel may even challenge for pole position.
(For this and a host of other kind of data, go to the TJ13 Chancery’s Archives)
maybe tourdog can shed some light on this, but after Vettels early pit in Mexico, the gap between him and the Mercs stayed at a very steady 50 s (until he binned it) for a number of laps
But if you can’t qualify on pole it’s diffiuclt to win a race. And Ferrari is traditionally slower on Saturday. I hope they solve it.
A chink of light at the end of the tunnel…
The thing Ferrari are forgetting is that Mercedes have the “off season” to make further improvements too.
Exactly.
Andy Cowell will not be keeping his hands warm all winter by sitting on them.
Haha exactly right. Also you can’t really compare times between different tracks like this article does as they are all unique (obviously). Just look at the results from Singapore earlier this season. Having said that i am looking forward to Australia next season and not just because i’m an aussie but to see if i can be proven wrong and someone can catch or at least give Mercedes a real good run.
Wasn’t Seb running on the option tires compared to the prime of the two Mercedes cars at that point?
haha. funny stuff! kinda sorta a Seb fan, but totally dislike Ferrari as an asshole F1 team. totally dislike Merc and Williams and Macca even way more! much prefer watching F India/Torro Rosso/Manor/ and even Sauber a wee bit!
So you love Red Bull?
Bull lover
Ferrari still seem to have a balance problem, the gap in beginning of the races is always bigger when the car is still heavy. Seems the Merc performs better under heavy fuel-load