I've been thinking about the first two races of the season and where we are.
Stating the obvious, we are not as fast as the leaders. Right now I think we are behind Mercedes (the clear leaders) and Red Bull. Very close to us are Williams and McLaren.
My first observation is that we have a really top chassis and our overall aero package is also very good. I'd also say that our car has great potential - I do think we will see steady improvements in the car.
I don't think much will come to Bahrain by way of new parts, and I think that this track will suit the Merc powered cars, so it makes it even more important for us to harvest as many points as possible this weekend. I'm sure that's the thinking of the team.
We clearly need to improve our cornering low speed traction. This needs to come from a combination of mechanical grip improvements and engine torque management. I don't think these will be very difficult.
The biggest problem we face, IMO, comes from within the PU. And I don't think it's hard to understand why. Firstly we need to understand that the PU has been greatly changed with these new 2014 regulations. The single biggest problem area for the team is that the PU is not an ICE. Having watched the Malaysian race again, and having paid very close attention to the fuel usage and different in-car views quite a few things make sense to me.
I doubt I will find many who will intrinsically agree with this, but my feeling is that Ferrari's ICE is possibly the best in the field - both in terms of fuel management and power. I'm quite sure, that, if we only consider the ICE, then Ferrari will not be behind either Mercedes or Renault. Given that, why is Ferrari so far down on power compared to both Merc and Renault? This is our area of biggest weakness - the MGU's (particularly the MGU-K) and the ES. We are clearly significantly down here. This also makes perfect sense. Whilst Ferrari has great strength and knowledge in ICE's (albiet normally aspirated ICE's) we have almost zero background knowledge in the electrical power sections of the engines. These parts of the rules were specifically written for the production car industry to keep those involved and possibly attract others. So where both Merc and Renault have great depth in the electrical power side (this has for a long time been part of their production). So Ferrari start a very long way behind in the PU area.
If the above has some merit then where does that leave the team? Well, I think its not that bad. We are only two races into a long season. Very significant improvements can be made very quickly here. Perhaps as soon as Spain. What is best is that the team accepts this advantage that was served up to opposition and simply has a determination to overcome it and eventually be the leader.
Mercedes deserves to be the clear current leader - they took their advantage and made the most of it.
However, many Mercedes fans in general, and the Mercedes fans here have, two races into the season, completely written off Ferrari and already crowned themselves with the 2014 WDC and WCC. A little premature IMO. One thing this self proclaiming has achieved is to push me firmly behind Red Bull for whatever of this season we don't have the winning car. Remember Dan is an Australian of Italian heritage who is on the record as having "dreamed of driving for Ferrari"
After the agony of defeat, success will be sweet!
))
