New Ferrari postponed

[RTKar]

The debut of the new Ferrari, F2003A was expected to be April 20th. Due to disappointing tests it will not make its maiden appearance at Imola, according to the Chicago Tribune.

[Ed_Severson]

Jean Todt has now said that the team's goal is to have the new machine ready for the Spanish GP, the race immediately following Imola.

Schumacher, meanwhile, says that the old car is still the fastest on the grid, and only bad luck has prevented them from winning ...

"We've still got the fastest car. The season has only just begun and there's nothing to worry about. The difference (between this year and last) is that we've been unlucky. At the Australian Grand Prix it was the weather, in Brazil we fell foul of the new regulations. Only in Malaysia were we clearly slower, but that was also the case last year."

We shall see, but if Ferrari fall much further behind McLaren, they'd better hope the new car is as astronomically good relative to the rest of the field as last year's was.

[cartmanoz]

From everything I have read, the new Ferrari is certainly fast, but fragile. Badoer has suffered many high-speed accidents. And surely the Ferrari cannot keep being one second faster with every development.

[Chaos]

maybe not, but they certainly have the budget to try :)

[Lizzerd]

I suppose that it was bad luck that The Chin CRASHED last week, too.

[Ed_Severson]

I'm not going to try and make excuses for Ferrari's start to the season -- I'm rather enjoying it -- but I think Michael's comments about the race in Brazil were intended to underscore the fact that because of the new rules, he was having to overdrive a bit in messy conditions on tyres not properly suited for the weather just to keep pace.

Personally, I think it's a valid complaint to some degree. I still don't understand why Ferrari has had such trouble getting their cars to the front of the grid, and they certainly, in my opinion, could have done a better job in qualifying at Interlagos. But, the tyre regulations the FIA adopted for wet weather are ridiculous. In my opinion, the tyre situation left no opportunity for agression or an attempt to move up the order on the track. All the drivers behind the lead could do was hang on for dear life.

Not very sporting, I think.

[Hink]

Too bad old AJ isn't on Scuderia Ferrari.

He'd a done taken them Bridgestones and cut full wets with his box cutter.