In a word, No.
They're made good progress this year and it's really been steady progress ever since they bought into the team, but are they at the stage where they can challenge for the championship? I would say not. They're not fast enough to trouble Ferrari and while a win or two isn't out of the question, they just don't have the experience or the strength to keep up the relentless pace of development that Ferrari and McLaren can do.
Can they beat McLaren though?
Maybe. While McLaren are a stronger team, they are somewhat hobbled by having to limit their development, and their showing in the past two races hasn't been outstanding - Hamilton in particular had a very scrappy race in Bahrain and the ultimate pace of the team in Malaysia wasn't outstanding.
However, if I was forced to say right now whether I thought BMW would beat McLaren, I'd have to say no. BMW have great qualifying pace but their race pace isn't quite as outstanding. What's more is that McLaren are a formidable team and they can fight back from their current slump having been in this position many times before. This is new territory for BMW and I'm not sure they're always going to make the right decisions - especially when the pressure is on at the end of the season.
However, having three teams in the mix is great for F1 and whatever happens will be great for us as viewers.
Showing posts with label ferrari. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ferrari. Show all posts
Wednesday, 9 April 2008
Tuesday, 8 April 2008
The benefit of hindsight
I'm going to go back in time today and look at an item in history that I don't think has ever really been resolved.
Come with me back to 1990 and imagine a young Jean Alesi - driver of the moment, the man who had impetuously passed Ayrton Senna's McLaren in his little Tyrrell, the man surely destined to be a multiple grand prix and championship winner. The man who had somehow managed to sign himself to both Williams and Ferrari contracts at the same time and who now had to choose which one to go with. A contract hoo-haa erupted, but Ferrari were the eventual winners and young Alesi would be partnering his hero, Alain Prost - the world was at Alesi's feet.
Fast Forward to the end of the 90s and there's Jean once again, 1 grand prix victory under his belt, no championships and a bemused paddock wondering quite what had happened to the man destined to be one of the greats. During the same period, Williams had made world champions out of Mansell, Prost, Hill and Villenueve as well as winning 5 constructors championships.
"Obviously", everyone said, with grave voices, knowing nods and the benefit of hindsight, "Jean made the wrong decision to go with Ferrari and the fiery Sicilian has let his head rule his heart. He should have taken the logical choice and have gone with Williams."
However, I'd like to take a different view. My view is that Jean made the correct decision for the time and I suspect most in his situation would have make the same choice; Jean was just unfortunate that it turned out over time to be the wrong decision.
To understand why I'm putting my head on the block like this, you need to look at the bigger picture.
In 1988, Ferrari had one race win to Williams zero wins and finished second in the championship against Williams 7th.
1989 Ferrari had 3 wins to Williams 2, although Williams took 2nd in the championship and Ferrari were 3rd.
In 1990, Ferrari had 6 (!) wins to Williams 2 and were runners up in the championship whilst Williams were 4th.
If the trend continued, as it looked like it might, then Ferrari were by far the stronger team and had the strength and experience to possibly take Alesi to the title. Williams looked like they were still in their rocky period after a dominating time with Honda. Their relationship with Renault hadn't yet shown its potential.
I think, looking at the stats above, Alesi would have been crazy to go to Williams at that time. Sadly for him, craziness was what we needed at that time but any sane person would have gone to Ferrari, a team that was fighting for the championship, and get the experience to partner and learn from Prost - one of the greatest drivers ever in the sport.
Jean was just unlucky.
Come with me back to 1990 and imagine a young Jean Alesi - driver of the moment, the man who had impetuously passed Ayrton Senna's McLaren in his little Tyrrell, the man surely destined to be a multiple grand prix and championship winner. The man who had somehow managed to sign himself to both Williams and Ferrari contracts at the same time and who now had to choose which one to go with. A contract hoo-haa erupted, but Ferrari were the eventual winners and young Alesi would be partnering his hero, Alain Prost - the world was at Alesi's feet.
Fast Forward to the end of the 90s and there's Jean once again, 1 grand prix victory under his belt, no championships and a bemused paddock wondering quite what had happened to the man destined to be one of the greats. During the same period, Williams had made world champions out of Mansell, Prost, Hill and Villenueve as well as winning 5 constructors championships."Obviously", everyone said, with grave voices, knowing nods and the benefit of hindsight, "Jean made the wrong decision to go with Ferrari and the fiery Sicilian has let his head rule his heart. He should have taken the logical choice and have gone with Williams."
However, I'd like to take a different view. My view is that Jean made the correct decision for the time and I suspect most in his situation would have make the same choice; Jean was just unfortunate that it turned out over time to be the wrong decision.
To understand why I'm putting my head on the block like this, you need to look at the bigger picture.
In 1988, Ferrari had one race win to Williams zero wins and finished second in the championship against Williams 7th.
1989 Ferrari had 3 wins to Williams 2, although Williams took 2nd in the championship and Ferrari were 3rd.
In 1990, Ferrari had 6 (!) wins to Williams 2 and were runners up in the championship whilst Williams were 4th.
If the trend continued, as it looked like it might, then Ferrari were by far the stronger team and had the strength and experience to possibly take Alesi to the title. Williams looked like they were still in their rocky period after a dominating time with Honda. Their relationship with Renault hadn't yet shown its potential.
I think, looking at the stats above, Alesi would have been crazy to go to Williams at that time. Sadly for him, craziness was what we needed at that time but any sane person would have gone to Ferrari, a team that was fighting for the championship, and get the experience to partner and learn from Prost - one of the greatest drivers ever in the sport.
Jean was just unlucky.
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