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The last couple of years Ferrari(like most teams) has been a bit on their back foot in getting the most out of their cars. However, as I see all the chaos of fighting over engineers, designers, etc with Mercedes, McLaren and Lotus Ferrari not only look solid they are ahead of the curve. Ferrari has a top person working on this years car as well as the 2014 car which is most important. As we have seen from Red Bull if you get the most out of your car when the rules change the most a la 2014 and 2009 before that, then you tend to stay out front during that period. these other teams are having trouble making sense of who will run the show this year let alone next.

of course RB is probably also working hard on 2014....

Aren't they using the Toyota wind tunnel because the Ferrari one has problems?

Its not exactly good when they have to use a wind tunnel not even close to Maranello. They've been using it for a little while i guess though, so it will help them. I don't really think they have an advantage over other teams just because of how much they have to spend in terms of renting out the wind tunnel, shipping things there and back, if anything it adds more complication.

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I agree that their team structure appears stable, but others are in the same situation. The cause of many setbacks for the last two years was an inconsistency between wind tunnel data and real world results. They had to shut their wind tunnel down to perform a complete recalibration, let's hope it works and they can get a better car on the grid.

But there's no guarantee that political instability within the team is a recipe for disaster, Massa put on a stout charge against Hamilton on 2008 despite the crazy internal politic forcing Raikkonen out to replace. And in 2009 Brawn took over the departing Honda, obtained an engine, and went on to win.

But I believe they appear to be in a better situation than in the last few years,

I think the main thing is they are not in these battles for chief designers and engineers... they are stable. Macca, Merc and Lotus could all be in chaos if this all moves

Maybe McLaren, Lotus and Mercedes are chopping and changing a bit but it was Red Bull that stopped Ferrari from winning anything last season and they are just as stable as Ferrari.

We'll also find out how much potential that front pull rod suspension has. If the last part of 2012 is anything to go by then things are not looking too good for Ferrari in terms of design and development.

Right now I can't imagine Red Bull being uncompetitive next season. Everything points to them having a great car from the get go. Beyond that its very hard to predict anything. But if you must then McLaren are probably favorites as the best of the rest.

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Both Ferrari and Red Bull are stable right now. Red Bull perhaps even more so than Ferrari since De La Rosa's entrance into the latter.

However Ferrari could still design a car that has one or more fundamental flaws in it, they did it in 2005, 2009 and 2011. It all depends if they go for an evolution or a revolution. Red Bull will go evolution as always so they are in the strongest position right now.

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Pretty sure they will go for evolution. Fry said they will further develop the pull rod suspension at the front. Domenicalli said they focus a lot on the exhausts, and the early indications are that the radiator layout/cooling system will remain. I hope the F2013 will be a deflawed F2012 (if we are to believe Gary Anderson, the F2012 did have many flaws).

I've also read Fry has made many changes since joining in 2010 to get Ferrari up to speed, and perhaps this will be the first year that we these changes start showing results.

OTOH Brawn won 2009 and went backwards as Merc (as well as during 2009).

Best situation of all? Even better than Red Bull? Really?

the only reason Brawn was good was due to the double diffuser then they went down hill fast the next year

And they had to make THREE cars at the same time, at least one of which turned out to be total crap, and one of them happened to be the dominating one with the double diffuser.

And as far as stability is concerned - Bigois and Sanchez were recently added to our aerodynamics department. I also believe that De Luca has either left or been demoted.

i believe i read once that some teams also use the Toyota wind tunnel including Mclaren....it's apparently state of the art.