(05-25-2011 02:38 AM)Chrissie Wrote: [ -> ]Yes, I saw that, meant to post it earlier...
..there's some speculation that maybe they've got a top notch new guy to come in to replace him but I doubt we'd be that lucky 
But Pat fry is taking over unless he is going to step down very soon. Unlikely as they would have said so that he is an 'acting chassis' technical director for now.
Pat Fry wouldn't stand for that since he is a senior personal experience wise, he would be keen on taking up the top role otherwise he would not stick around at Ferrari. He will gladly be picked up by other teams into the top most role.
Furthermore, not many free top notch people in the business, they are all tied up and having a good positions at rival teams. There are also no attractive benefits for anyone to come to Ferrari, other teams have better resources and they located in the UK (a very important factor). Another aspect is the complete team, as in the case of for example Redbull. People credit Adrian Newey with the design, to an extent this is true but not entirely. Far from it.
People like Peter prodromou and several others have equally important areas some having nothing to do with Adrian Newey's areas and without them the Redbull car is far from complete. Also no one man comes up with the entire shape of the car. There will be brain storming sessions between engineers and ultimately the responsibility of filtering out the brightest and promising ideas will come down to Adrian Newey, apart from his own ideas.
Aldo Costa maybe gone, but there are others too at Ferrari who are still there, unless they have a big change, nothing miraculous is going to happen from one person. If Adrian Newey goes to Ferrari nothing will change. Precisely why he left Mclaren, he had ideas but the rest of the people where not upto his standards or they simply didn't agree with his ideas. And they differed in design philosophies, so he walked over to Redbull. Just before that he was planning to move into Yacht racing and retire from motorsports like F1.
The press does a terrible job of making it look like one man is the main guy who made the car at every team. This is pure bullshit. Hilarious stuff to say the very least.
Teams have groups of people working on just aerodynamics alone, then comes suspension, gear box, engine, cooling, electronics, IT, Wind-tunnel, CFD optimization etc. The area is vast and all of them matter to winning races. It is after all the sum of all these areas that result in a winning car.
There seem to be a huge problem in Ferrari, no?