Amongst Method 1’s most well-known ones that obtained away is the 1988 season, the place McLaren would have received each single race had Ayrton Senna not tangled with Jean-Louis Schlesser’s tardy Williams within the closing laps. Up there with that efficiency is Michael Schumacher’s 2004 season in what was additionally among the many most dominant F1 automobiles ever: the Ferrari F2004. The German received 12 of the primary 13 races of the season, a run blighted solely by a slipshod DNF in Monaco.
For McLaren crew principal Andrea Stella this can be a defining interval, as a result of he was Schumacher’s efficiency engineer on the time and remembers the heady sense of pleasure within the air as Ferrari realised the F2004 was far quicker than its simulations had predicted.
Since this weekend’s GP at Imola is prone to be the circuit’s swansong, Stella was invited to share his recollections of the monitor and a kind of was that revelatory first open check of the F2004.
“I even have various ardour for Method 1, and Imola resonates with this ardour,” he stated.
“On the time [the mid-2000s], you might nonetheless take two automobiles of various seasons, and we had the 2003 and 2004 automobiles right here in Imola. They have been going round on the similar time – one pushed by Michael and one pushed by Rubens [Barrichello] – and we realised that we had a brilliant automotive in hand for 2004 as a result of the lap time and the consistency of that automotive was nice. So, loads hooked up to this circuit, positively from me.
Lando Norris, McLaren, Andrea Stella, McLaren
Picture by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Photos
“That automotive received 12 of the primary 13 races with Michael, and the one one we misplaced was as a result of Michael crashed with Montoya beneath the tunnel in Monaco, whereas Montoya was truly one lap down throughout a security automotive. In any other case, seemingly we’d have received 13 out of 13.
“That’s a reference that I truly typically use even to encourage myself – like, that’s the place we wish to be. However I don’t assume this may occur this yr.
“So, there’s exhausting work forward of us to ensure this occurs within the years to return. I believe we’re a couple of steps behind in comparison with these sorts of references.”
Turning level for Ferrari
Such is the legend of the F2004 that on the uncommon events an instance comes in the marketplace, it attracts an eye-watering worth. 20 years in the past, Sotheby’s offered a chassis Schumacher had pushed to 5 victories in 2004 for $3.2million.
Time magnified each the repute and the values: 5 years in the past, four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel revealed he had needed to purchase one at public sale however the worth was too wealthy even for his tastes.
Michael Schumacher, Ferrari F2004
Picture by: Lorenzo Bellanca / Motorsport Photos
The automotive arrived at an inflection level for Ferrari, because it confronted a resurgent ‘Group Enstone’ (previously Benetton, not too long ago acquired by Renault) and a McLaren-Mercedes partnership whose progress in 2003 had been stymied by its failure to render the unconventional MP4-18 race-ready.
There was a sense that the crew had been too conservative the earlier season and an enormous step was required. Monumental assets have been poured into aerodynamics, finite stress evaluation, and suspension kinematics – the latter to higher exploit an ever-closer relationship with tyre provider Bridgestone.
After a shakedown check at Ferrari’s dwelling monitor, Fiorano – you actually may simply check a brand new F1 automotive there in these days – the F2004 was taken to Imola for a back-to-back analysis with the earlier season’s F2003-GA.
The comparability astonished everybody at Ferrari.
“I bear in mind on the first shakedown we have been doing lap instances that did not match our simulations,” chief race engineer Luca Baldisserri informed Autosport in 2018. “In these instances they weren’t so subtle simulations.
“However contemplating the ambient temperature, we have been utterly off, however in a great way! Everyone was saying we needed to examine that every little thing was OK, and that we have been on the burden restrict.”
Podium: Michael Schumacher, Ferrari
Picture by: Motorsport Photos
The Imola check supplied additional proof of the automotive’s velocity, however Ferrari nonetheless couldn’t fairly imagine it.
“It was mega,” Rob Smedley, chief check engineer on the time, informed Autosport. “We had the 2003 automotive, after which Michael jumped into the F2004.
“He obtained out of the automotive and he had this huge smile, and he stated, ‘I am telling you it is actual.’ And we have been saying, ‘It may possibly’t be, we all know what the aero numbers are, we all know what the engine is, there’s completely no method.’
“Afterwards, we spent about 12 hours with 10 of us poring by means of each aspect of the info. We have been questioning what the hell we would executed improper, as a result of there was clearly one thing improper – had we put completely different tyres on it? Was the ballast not in it? We did so many checks.
“We designed this check for the subsequent day the place we’d be capable of outfox ourselves and discover out what we would executed improper, and hopefully verify that it was solely the half-a-second faster than the 2003 automotive that we thought it was.
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“And we could not discover it. It was two seconds a lap faster. But it surely wasn’t simply that. The largest distinction was that after we went out and did 15-lap runs, it went from being 1.5s faster at first of the stint to 2s faster on the finish of the stint. We have been like, ‘What are we going to do now? Why do not we have now a simple winter and switch up in Australia with this factor?’
“However we did not, we pushed on.”
That is the spirit Andrea Stella is now attempting to channel at McLaren.
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