Existing Users: Because of an update to the forum software you will need to reset your password. Please use the "Forgot?" link on the sign in form to do so. If that doesn't work, send me an email at feedback@forzaminardi.com and I'll sort you out!
Well, what else can you say except that's damn pathetic for a new car - testing or no testing you can usually tell straight out of the box if the car's any good and it looks like Tredozi & Co. can't even do a good copy of someone else's machine let alone come up with a new idea.
Why couldn't Stoddart commission Brunner to at least supervise? :mad:
We have a current spec just-off-the-podium V10, two solid drivers, yet still can't get within 3 seconds of a Jordan? WTF is going on! :mad:
Comments
WEBBER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
I was dissappointed with the speed of the car, though.
Its a complete utter shambles. Diehards will say its setup, but both drivers got the maximum out the car. The team did not seem to run many laps in practice either so they were hardly looking for setup were they?
My question is it worth ploughing money into this chassis to solve its problems. Its going to cost an absolute bomb.
Regards the design team. The problem is there is no designer. Tredozzi is a project manager and Tilley has no design experience. Ryton is the only person who can save us.
How old is that elusive Jordan? 2003? Something is going on which underfinance doesn't completely explain. I was expecting a quick car with a touch of unreliability, which should be the major side effect of not testing, a 'la Arrows 2002. Slow from the get go even McLaren had an extremely difficult and expensive time with.
[Edited on 23/4/2005 by dst]
quig, you know what to do. ;)
THose qual times though, the top 10 in within a second. And Webber saying that he thought he could have gone a little quicker in Sector 1. Tomorrow will be interesting :P
A little fact is that CA was faster then last year, Bruni did a 1,26,4 in the pre quali.
At the San Marino track you need a lot of downforce so it is not strange that a car with less then 400 km is very difficult to find the wright balance.
I hope they can do a lot of km in next test sessions in Mugello and i hope they ill get a main sponsor for the rest of the season so they can test the car more and more.
I think we must crossed owher fingers and give the guys owher support.
Judging by looks, the car isn't bad. Judging by times, it's horrible. It's still early, so perhaps we'll see a change. However, after the shakedown plus friday and sunday practice, one would have wished that a baseline could have been achieved.
Haven't seen ANY video footage, so a bit hard to say anything reasonable. However, with at least 60bhp more power and the engine CoG 50mm lower, we're 3secs off Jordan.. Given that the 04B was already terrible by anyone's standards, this is just unspeakable.
My sympathy to the team, the mood must be unbearable. No other way than to pick up the pieces and keep working.
DST's right, the sort of incremental gains the team have made are already tailing off. On the positive side is the car has matched the unmodified PS04 times from February.
The commentator made the point that this car is designed for the V10 Cosworth so what are Minardi going to do when the V8's come on line? Might've been better off to just use the old car and build a new chassis designed for the V8's.
Forza!
I for one have never seen a midfield team let alone a backmarker introduce a car and make large, quantum leaplike performance gains, if there are that any can tell me about I'd love to hear the stories.
The shot of the team in the garage told me everything I needed to know and it certainly didn't jibe with the pap put out in the press release. Those guys looked pretty shook up.
Slow and unreliable is what we're expecting now huh?
Imola's a tricky, technical circuit, no ideal place to debut an untested car, and the drivers made some errors, but 3 secs off Karthikeyan just won't cut it. We won't know until Nurburgring whether they have designed a real dud, a disaster, but we can see right now they haven't achieved the objective of designing a car to restore Minardi's technical credentials.
It feels disloyal to say this, it really does, but what else can you say?
For example:
Ferrari
BAR
Sauber
McLaren
Williams
have all had some issues. Only Renault, RBR, Toyota have made any significant positive change in their package. We have the worst tyres on the grid too.
Treat this as a practise session not one to gauge overall performance. We're on a steep learning curve, it's going to be hard, but we make it harder by expecting over and beyond what is fair for a chassis and rules that are hard to grasp even for teams with unlimited budgets.
I think some people need to take a pill and give the team a little time to sort out what makes this go fast and slow. Personally. I'd love to borrow an experienced driver to test the car and give his feedback to us. This is what we are really missing.
So lets be brave and relax; the body is slippery enough to get up to fast speeds without doing anything evil, and the drivers are able to be consistent near the limit.
Minardi might have hoped for better from the bigger engine, but the RBR cars aren't going real fast either.
Best to go back to old fashion testing on the track and hire a proper designer!
I've only got the times and Formula1.com's commentary to go on, but maybe that was a bit more encouraging. Friesacher closer to the Jordans (both of em), despite being first out on track, and Albers allegedly going much quicker until he dropped it. Naughty boy, a Verstappenesque faux pas at Variante Alta. Seems like no harm done though.
I suppose we just dust ourselves off and come out fighting as best we can.
Although Barcelona is an aerodynamic circuit they won't make any progress if the platform is still unstable