Stefano Domenicali admits the Maranello built design is "extremely difficult to drive".

"The drivers simply don't have the confidence about how the car is going to react, so they brake earlier and go back onto the gas later," he is quoted as saying by Auto Bild.

Domenicali added: "I would like to say something about Luca Badoer, because everyone put him down. Giancarlo did a fantastic result in Belgium before he came to us and now also he is struggling.

"It would therefore be wrong to push all the blame onto the drivers," said the Italian.

http://www.f1complete.com/content/view/14955/1/

Can't disagree with him. I suspect the problem is down to KERS. Badoer took a lot of flak, which now looks to have been unfairly flung his way. MS was lucky he is still injured, because I don't think he would have looked any better.

It's odd because diving difficult cars used to be Fisi's speciality.

The rest of the cars on the grid could be even harder to drive than the ferrari. Domenicalli wouldnt have a clue.

In other words, he thinks their poor results are mostly the drivers' fault but concedes the car may be a bit difficult, too.

I think KERS provides a whole new level of difficulty. As I understand it it affects the engine braking, but is unpredictable.

A car that is difficult to drive is as good as a bad car IMO.

Fisichella would though, and he's not a mute AFAIK.

COME BACK BADOER.....ALL IS FORGIVEN....

Badoer would sometimes not even drive on the racing line! He also couldnt drive consistant laptimes on the pace he was able to do. He was unbelievably bad

Last night Massa was on a TV show here in Brazil. He basically said the same thing, the F60 is very hard to drive and quite unpredictable. One expression he used was like you're always having to work on it and correct it.

But the interesting thing is, everything considered, is that he is not unbelievably bad. Unless the last couple of years has done some fundamental changes in his being. He is a looong serving Ferrari driver that has been compared to Schumi (not in absolute terms in level of skill, but within the Ferrari team when they evaluate test data) and there is just no way they would have put him in the car if he was unbelievably bad.

Badoer had the same consistancy as school custard. That was one of his downfalls.

lol

Now that 3rd in the constructors championship is practically out of reach they should bring back Badoer to see how he fares against Fisi.

I second that, would be fun
Really.

Doesn't look as hard to drive as the McLaren.

What are you talking about? It's not out of reach, one point difference.

Badoer beat David Coulthard and Rubens Barrichello to the Formula 3000 title in 1992.

The guy has taken so much unwarranted abuse.

Looking at what happened before F1 is irrelevant, it's how they perform now that counts, not 17 years ago. Both DC and RB went on to drive for several teams and had a long F1 racing career, whereas Badoer was consigned to the test driver bin and wasn't even considered worthy enough to take up his 3rd driver role when MS broke his legs.

Good point. That would have ruined Michael's legacy.
Roll on 2010. It should be interesting how Ferrari react to what has been a poor season by their standards.

???? He knows all the drivers. Also all the cars. You really think that he would not have a clue??

Did you see him taking the final corner at Valenica? Often he didn't use the full width of the track when coming out on the straight! Accepted that a driver might not have the confidence to push the go pedal down for fear of spinning the car, but you still use all available track to straighten out as soon as you can so that you can bury the pedal.

Badoer didn't just have problem with brakes or accelerator, he didn't know how to steer the car either. Rotten, useless driver, I wouldn't trust him with a taxi much less a F1 car.

It didn't happen "often", it happened maybe once. Who's to say that there wasn't dust or oil there at the time?

If he can't accelerate, brake or steer, how did he become Formula 3000 champion?

Luca Badoer is a good racing driver. He got vitriol from the time he walked into the paddock for the first time in Valencia, because people wanted Schumacher in the car and didn't get it. He had to learn the car and the circuit, with no testing given at all. Now we know the car is very difficult to drive, he did a reasonable job. The idea that he was terrible was the thought of a few small minded people who rammed it home until it was a de facto fact.

...is that euphemism for F60 is a piece of sh!t...and I'm not man enough to take responsibility?

Sure that's true. I don't think it would account for what Stefano said about them having to delay getting back on the throttle, though. But I have thought on Kimi's onboards that the engine comes back in quite suddenly, more so than the Mac and more than in Kimi's old Mac onboards.

GF and LB line-up in Abu Dabhi?
Twiddle Dee v Twiddle Dum
EPIC BATTLE!

Amazing what can happen to a man in 17years. I think it's called ageing.

Where do you get it from?
As Brawn mentioned MS is very good at adjudging new car and driving around the problem. So I am pretty sure that he would have done much better then Fisi and Badoer (but may be not as good as MS fans expected).

looking at an onboard lap of KR at Istanbul, the car seems amazingly balanced

Badoer had been out of competitive F1 racing for nearly a decade, it's no surprise he was so poor. Add in the difficult car and his consistency was never going to be good.

Exactly. I remember his Formula 3000 times. He was good. As is Fisicella.
But the Ferrari of 2009 is really difficult.
Which means that Massa and Raikkonen are extremely good drivers.

If I may ask, why do you guys keep bringing up Formula 3000? That's like a lifetime ago.

And he became a F3000 champion in 2008? 2007?
I've heard of this marketing slogan 'diamonds are forever', but apparently drivers are too.



No he isn't. Perhaps in a different century he was. Not today, not yesterday, not the day before yesterday. If he was any good why didn't he have a racing seat in F1? Why would a good racing driver take a job of test driver who rarely gets to test anyway?



So Ferrari are getting rid of Kimi for overperforming, right? I mean, if Badoer's performance can be called 'reasonable' Kimi has to be driving beyond the limits of physics.



But this 'idea' wouldn't have stuck if Luca dearest didn't suck. Fernando, too, has been driving a difficult Renault yet not even his harshest critics question his competence in driving a car. Likewise for some other drivers who have had a difficult and slow car to drive at different part of this season.

No. At the exit of the last corner of Valencia he would several times not use the width of the track, at other corners he would not use the entire width of the track on entry also. You could visibly see the lines he would drove were a car width off what other drivers used and in line comparison videos in the broadcast they even showed exactly how much time Badoer loses by driving his own wrong line threw the corners.

Getting used to the car and beeing slower then Räikkönen is one thing anyone would have expected. But even so one must expect him to be able to drive consistant lap times. There are drivers who are fast but not so consistant, and there are drivers who are not that fast but consistant, he was neither fast and not at all consistant with his lap times. With all his experience, that was a huge disappointment.

Hey, somebody already proved that theory in another thread.

Indeed. Lewis and Heikki have to saw on the wheel alot. Its always exciting to see them in onboard views

I can't wait to see Alonso's first test either. I wonder if he will take the F60 for a spin first?

IMO Fisi is slow in the F60 (whatever the reasons may be)...Luca Badoer was just pathetic. I mean he was really really bad, his speed, or lackthereof, was the least of his problems. He looked lost. I feel sorry for Fisi, I felt embarrased for Luca. I think they should never have put him in that situation to begin with. I don't question his as a test-driver. But a race driver he's not.

You just might think that Fisichella might have mentioned something about FI being a bit easier for him

You're such a genius You don't even understand the very basics of racing, yet you post here as an expert when you are one of the least knowledgeable people I've ever read in here

I bet you have a better clue than Domenicalli

It seems a helluva lot better car in Kimi's onboards than in Fisi's, definitely.

Domenicalli did not drive the car. He may draw that conclusion from Fisi and Badoer's results.
I would believe him more if someone on Kimi level would have tried this car.

Hmmmm I haven't sat down to analyze that, but I have to say, to me, the F60 has simply looked all year visibly not suited to Raikkonen's style of driving, nor to Fisichella's for that matter. Actually, in Fisichella's hands it look aweful, he's really having a rough time, I can only think that Kimi has simply learned to live with it a bit, still doesn't make it easy for him, however balanced or not.

Balance is balance, doesn't exactly mean it feel safe or that oit might be fast or not. If I were to race an All Kart, I'd feel extremely uncomfortable driving it, I will find a suitable balance, but I'd still hate driving it beacause the Chassis itself feels aweful, and I might not be as fast as if I were driving a Birel, or CRG, not to mention I would not be confident, which of course, in the rare event that i ould be as fast as with another chassis, I wouldn't be as fast for so long, or as consistent. You may also find other chassis who's balance feels all wrong yet you can be extremely fast in it, Tony Kart for me in particular woulc be this way.

Just my educated opinion

Doesn´t kimi drive the F60?
Maybe he actually has spoken to Domenicali about the car.

He still has a better clue than any of us here

So what was exactly wrong with it? I didn't really see any oversteer, maybe a bit of understeer, but it generally looks safe to drive. I mean, didn't KR give the car positive feedback in terms of handling earlier this year? All of a sudden it's become the most difficult car to drive, surely that is not the case.

Fisichella has had virtually no testing in the car, and seeing as he was used to driving the Force India, I'd expect him to struggle.

F60 has definitely looked nervous and unpredictable from the onboard clips, especially around Hungaroring where it looked like KR would lose control of the car many times but he never did.

Let's not exaggerate here, he was able to finish the race in 2nd position, his pace was good, generally nervous and twitchy cars eat their tyres up quickly.

Or maybe Kimi doesn't actually think the car's that difficult to drive but Stefano, being the chap whose job it is to explain why Ferrari's Massa replacements have contributed exactly 0 points to the team's overall points total and haven't looked even remotely competitive in the doG knows how many races they've had by now, has thought it better to absolve Luca and Fisi of some of the blame. They've been woeful enough - and they know it! There's no need for the boss to stomp on them any more than is strictly speaking necessary. At least in public.

I honestly don't remember KR whining about how very, very difficult the car is to drive. But I do have a recollection of a somewhat defensive Heikki Kovalainen pointing out that the MPwhatever he had just shattered into pieces "wasn't exactly the easiest car to keep on the black stuff".