No one, least of all Ferrari, underestimates the size of the job required to take the Scuderia back to the top of Formula 1 — and it’ll take a lot more than a talented German multiple world champion to turn around the team’s fortunes.
Even Michael Schumacher needed four years at Ferrari before he won the drivers’ championship in a red car.
As former team principal Stefano Domenicali said earlier this season, the problem with Ferrari’s 2014 F1 car, the F14T, is that it has no one problem; turning it into a regular race winner would have required a transformation in every area, from its engine to its aerodynamics, and clearly that’s now not going to happen.
So all the focus is on the 2015 car. The good news for Ferrari is that the engine freeze that applied to the 2.4-litre formula no longer exists. Although there are some limited restrictions on what changes can be made to the powertrain over the winter, there is the scope for Ferrari (and Renault) to massively modify their engines in a bid to get back on terms with Mercedes-Benz.
On the other hand, the regulations also restrict pre-season testing even more, banning it entirely outside Europe and imposing further limits on wind tunnel time.
Even so, Ferrari will be anticipating that, with a new powertrain to help them get on terms with Mercedes-Benz and star designer Adrian Newey no longer front and centre at Red Bull, there is at least the opportunity to regain lost ground.
Whether losing Fernando Alonso and gaining Sebastian Vettel will help in this quest remains to be seen. But the parallels between Vettel’s arrival in Maranello and the ultimately successful era started by Michael Schumacher in 1996 will be lost on no one. Ferrari will be hoping very much that history will repeat itself.
Finally, there is the management side. It is too soon to tell if the appointment of the inexperienced Marco Mattiacci as team principal was a mistake, a stroke of genius or anything in between.
But rumours persist of Ross Brawn’s return to Ferrari. If he can be lured, if Vettel proves a success, if Ferrari can make an engine as well as Mercedes and if Red Bull is further hobbled by the absence of Newey, maybe Ferrari can return to the top.
It’s a lot of ifs, in a world where you might judge yourself on what you feel capable of but where everyone else judges you on your results alone.
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Indecisiveness
Ferrari does not look like a strong and decisive team at the moment. There have been recriminations and firings for this year being another failure, and now maybe the biggest impediment to future success has been pensioned off (supposedly to Alitalia). Mattiaci deserves until the end of this season to complete his settling-in and learning phases, but he needs to start looking like more of a leader for 2015.
Ferrari risks being left behind, with a few of their former key employees playing important roles in Mercedes' current success and Red Bull hampered only by a weak engine. If Renault can turn things around for next year, Ferrari may be shuffled further backwards in the pack. And that's without factoring in where McLaren-Honda will fit into the pecking order.
It going to be a long road
And i dont think it is an easy fix, firstly they dont seem to have a integrated team.. everyone seesm to be doingt here own thing in isolationa dn then piecingt he car together.. I think that been well documented. Mercedes took 5 years to put together the right team, the right package..but they knew they had to do that and worked towards that.. Ferrari for all the history and glamour has never really been able to function without haveing a cerain amount of polictics and inter team Ego's to really function ciorrectly.. sure thye ahd a btter time in Brawn Schumacher Era..but that was because the technical mastemind Brawn was an uncomplicated focused indviual.. as was Schumacher and Rory Byrne...
Commnents that mercedes are onloy winning due to there engine or that if the Engine development freeze is opened up that the other teams will be right behind MercedesI think are a little wide of the mark... you can have the best engine but if it not properly integrated and these days the package has be really optimised in all areas, aero, chassis, weight distribution, power unit etc... prime example is why Force India were nearly 1.5- secs on a quick lap slower than the mercs.. can ferrari optimise there package..I am not so sure! For a team that probably has the biggest budget in F1, they have year on year underperformed and hlf way through the seaosn stated that the car just isnt good enough themselves and enext year car will be better!... Hence Alosnso on the move, he had lost faith!
Ferrari Turnaround