25/07/2005
NEWS STORY
Having started fifth and finished fifth, one could say that Michael Schumacher didn't do too badly at Hockenheim. Even the seven-time World Champion tried to put a brave face on things: "Fifth place is okay in that I did not lose any positions from where I started," he said, "but of course I was hoping to do something better for the fans."
The most depressing thing about Germany 2005 - other than Rubens Barrichello's Sunday afternoon cruise to tenth - was watching Michael struggle for much of the race, before being 'picked off' by both Jenson Button and Giancarlo Fisichella.
Hockenheim made it abundantly clear where Ferrari, and more importantly Bridgestone, is, compared to the opposition.
Not surprisingly, it was a drained, stern-faced Jean Todt, who sat down to answer a few post-race questions.
He began by attempting to sum up the feeling within his team at present.
"It's frustrating," he admits, "but we know that when we do this business you have some ups, some downs. We have had some downs, we have had some ups and now we have some downs, but still, motivation is clear.
"When you see Michael's race today, he did one of his best races: fighting all the time, but the problem is that in this business you must fight with the package you are driving and at the moment, he could not do better. It's quite easy to analyse the race. You see that for 20-22 laps, we had a reasonable trend; then he started to drop a little bit and then, when Button passed him, he was already losing quite a lot and then he lost 28 seconds in 23 laps. So it's clear that we lack grip, and we don't lack grip all the time. It's an evolution and our evolution is bigger than for the others."
Both Michael and Rubens were on entirely different strategies, Todt is asked to explain why.
"It was not so different," he responds, "it was mainly the tyre choice which was different. One was on soft, the other one was on hard, one was with 22 laps of fuel, the other on 26 so it wasn't such a big difference. We simply knew we were going to be marginal with the soft, with the tyre wear, which we were. We thought that we could be performing better for most of the race. In fact we were performing quite well for 23 laps, 22 laps and we thought Rubens would be penalised, but maybe less than what he was on the qualifying lap but that he would be much quicker during the race, which wasn't the case."
Before Germany, the team has seemed quite optimistic with regards the new tyres at its disposal.
"I would say that it's like when you get knocked down on your arse," he replies, "the skin becomes tougher so I would say that we have had so many delusions, even if the word is a bit too strong, but until we see some substantial improvement we just prefer to see the thing in a negative way rather than in a positive way in order to have a good surprise. So we are prepared for a bad surprise at the moment.
"Clearly, for part of this season we have been struggling with grip in qualifying," he continues. "We slightly improved the situation, mainly with the choice of tyres Michael made for this race, and then we used to be very strong during the race. At the moment we are not strong during the race. Most of the field, when they saw us in 8th, 9th, tenth position, they were expecting then the car… In a way like Montoya did today, but it was simply the other way around."
It's clear that the problem is grip - or lack of it - but how does one find that grip: mechanical grip, aerodynamic grip, the specification of the tyres?
"We did not change the aerodynamics of the car during the course of the race," he responds, "so if you see the evolutions of the times, it's clear that we miss grip because of degradation of our tyres during the course of the race, or we don't have enough grip for qualifying, or we have an excess of degradation during the course of the race.
There is no official FIA ruling on testing, the 30-day limit between nine of the teams this season is an agreement between those teams. Over the next few weeks the teams will recognize the three-week Summer break, yet Ferrari may well decide to continue testing.
"We need to identify how to improve the grip on the car so we may find, we may not find," says the Frenchman. "I'm sure we will find it, but I'm far from knowing when exactly we will find it. So we just need to focus, to concentrate and to address the problem well and we will solve the situation. I would have preferred to solve it quicker and earlier but it's not the case.
"Sometimes we don't see in private testing what we see during the race, because of the temperatures are different," he adds, "because the rubber on the tarmac is different, because there are so many elements."
But would there be time, during the next three weeks, to test a new family of rubber perhaps, a completely new construction, a new compound?
"We have to see with our friends from Bridgestone," he replies, "because we test so many families, so we must sit down with them and our technical people must have a good analysis. Bridgestone has been doing one outstanding job with us and in a way we have had so much into their credit, so now we give it back a little bit, which I feel is not a pleasant situation but a fair situation. Life is give and take - or take and give. So at the moment we have taken, we are giving."
Last week, Michelin's Pierre Dupasquier said that he wanted more people to be on Bridgestone tyres. Is that something that Todt would echo?
"I don't think it's so much up to Pierre Dupasquier to say what he wants or what he doesn't want," he replies. "Let's say that if you have the best tyre, as was the case for the last years, I prefer to be alone on Bridgestones. If we are struggling, as we are now, it would be helpful to have one or two other teams but I'm not the one to make the decision and neither is Pierre Dupasquier. It is Bridgestone with the team owners from other teams."
It's time to 'bite the bullet', are both titles still winnable?
"Drivers: very, very difficult," he admits. "You have a clear guide, and particularly when you see the first 12 races. So mathematically we can but it seems very far from being easy.
"Manufacturers? It all depends if and when we are able to react to the present situation. If we would be able to react at the next race, then it's possible. If not, one race makes it more and more difficult."
Looking ahead, Todt is asked if Ferrari is getting close to the point where it will stop development of the F2005 and concentrate its efforts on 2006.
"Not yet," he replies, without hesitation. "But again, we have the development of the car, development of the engine, you have the development of the engine, so a lot of what we do now, if we managed to improve the situation, will be very helpful for next year."
There is some confusion as to Ferrari's plans for 2006, there has been talk of the team running its V8 configuration in a V10 case, if this is true, how did it go and when will we see a proper V8 running as a proper V8 unit?
"It is true that we did some testing with this kind of configuration," says the Frenchman.
Asked if this test took place at Mugello last week, the team's Press Officer, Luca Colajanni, leans forward: "We did one day at Fiorano and one day at Mugello," he says, "Fiorano a few weeks ago and one day at Mugello last Thursday."
"And we are testing the V8 on the test bed," adds Todt.
There is a certain amount of confusion, therefore, in order to clarify the situation, Todt is asked; "Can you clarify that you were running a V8 in a V10 case?"
"Yes," says the Frenchman.
"It's a V10 case which has mainly some characteristics of the V8," adds Colajanni.
An obvious question, that just has to be asked; "Why did you chose to test the V10 in a V8 configuration in the car?"
"Why? Because it's an easy move," Todt responds, like a teacher ridiculing a thick pupil. "At the moment we don't have all the final development of the V8 so it's one intermediate step to have already some ideas, and we don't yet have the car with V8 ready so it just allows us to have the first information."
Asked what progress Ferrari is making with the V8, he replies: "It's a new completely new project, new programme, but at the moment we have a lot of improvement to do."
It's rumoured that there is a problem with vibration… "Our engine people are directly concentrated on that," says the Frenchman.
As previously reported on Pitpass, the teams and manufacturers are on the verge of announcing their proposals for 2008 and beyond. There was a meeting at Hockenheim on Saturday which all the teams attended, except Ferrari.
"I heard about this meeting but we haven't been involved," says Todt.
Asked if Ferrari had been invited, his response is brief: "No!" he says.
Would he liked to have gone?: "That's a very strange question," he replies. "You asked me if we were invited. I answer: No. What does it mean… we would have been happy or not happy? You needed to have a precise answer if we have been invited. I answer: no, we have not been invited. If you want I can sign you a piece of paper…"
Once again, Colajanni leans forward: "You seem surprised. Have you heard something different?" he asks
"It wasn't just commercial matters they were talking about or even just regulations," says a journalist.
"I don't know," says Todt.
"But Jordan and Red Bull said that they were invited," adds the journalist.
"You heard that someone told you that we were invited?" asks Colajanni.
"Yes," the journalist replies.
Asked for Ferrari's opinion of the paper that will be published giving the nine teams' and the manufacturers' opinion," Todt responds: "I don't have proper ideas about the paper, but sooner or later we will see."
Asked if he thinks it's a good idea for some ideas to come from Ferrari and the FIA and some ideas from… he interrupts: "Why not? The more people you have doing a kind of brainstorming the better it is. All those people are competent, they know the business very well, so if you cover the problem with 20 people rather than with five I think it can only be good."
And with that, he's gone, to prepare for Hungary, to prepare for Monza.
It looks like the Summer break has been cancelled at Maranello.