Former Ferrari engineer Rob Smedley fears that his old employer could enter a ‘negative spiral’. The reason is the Miami GP where rival McLaren proved more successful with two podium finishes after introducing upgrades than the Scuderia. According to the former engineer of the Italian team, this can be ‘discouraging’ for Ferrari: ‘It actually sets a negative spiral in motion that you then have to unravel’.
Ferrari brought a large upgrade package to the recent Miami GP, like many other teams. The most striking component was the much-discussed ‘Macarena’ wing. Ferrari had already raced with the radical concept before, but debuted the rear wing during a race in Florida. However, it did not deliver the hoped-for results: no more than a final sixth place for Lewis Hamilton and an eighth place, partly due to a time penalty, for Charles Leclerc. Mercedes, which did not bring major upgrades to the Miami Grand Prix, won the race with Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
‘Negative spiral’
Former Ferrari engineer Rob Smedley, who was with the Scuderia for nearly a decade, does not think it will remain just one disappointing weekend for his old employer. “It is quite discouraging because it starts from a technical perspective. It actually sets a negative spiral in motion that you then have to unravel. What did you bring? What works? What doesn’t work?”, the Brit tells the High Performance podcast.
“If there is no correlation, for example if the wind tunnel or your simulation tools do not match what happens on the track, you have to go through the whole reverse engineering process where you go back to the tunnel,” Smedley continues. “And that slows down all the development in the tunnel that you should actually be doing.” The Brit warns his old employer that this could lead to a harmful technical downward spiral.
Read all about the Canadian GP here
