Felipe Massa deserves our heartiest congratulations for saving his Ferrari bacon, something that looked beyond him for the much of this season.
The dent in his skull left by that wickedly bouncing Brawn GP spring repaired more quickly than did the dent in his confidence.
He’s warranted a year’s stay not only for his two most recent performances but also for the grace he demonstrated at Interlagos in 2008 after his 38 seconds as world champion. The fondness so obvious in his race engineer Rob Smedley’s radio messages chimes with many of us, I’m sure.
Of course, sentiment counts for very little in F1 and Massa’s continued employment has much to do with the wishes of his number one. For Scuderia Ferrari is Fernando Alonso’s as it was Alberto Ascari’s, Niki Lauda’s and Michael Schumacher’s. He has moulded all aspects of it around him, and Massa has been deemed sufficiently malleable, controllable and fast – in that order – to keep his gig.
But, poor Felipe, speculation has already begun as to who will replace him in 2014. BBC Sport’s Andrew Benson, the indefatigable newshound who broke the story that Williams had (too prematurely) decided to jettison Damon Hill in favour of Heinz-Harald Frentzen though he was on the verge of securing the 1996 world title, has strongly tipped Sebastian Vettel to join Alonso in time for the introduction of the new engine formula.
This seems strange. The Spaniard has history with Lewis Hamilton, but to countermand the Briton’s but not the German’s move to Maranello would surely be a dropping of his guard. It also goes against the grain of big boss Luca di Montezemolo’s determined pursuit of a settled outfit. Along with Lauda, he brought order to the fractious Latin outfit of the 1970s. So he knows what is required and has poured cold water on talk of a ‘superteam’.
Still, ‘Benny’ knows his stuff.
Ferrari, in turn, knows team politics.
Enzo didn’t invent them but he did turn them into an art form. He delighted in playing off drivers against each other to keep them hungry. Although this approach helped create the mystique that still survives and draws drivers like moths to Ferrari’s flame, it was fundamentally flawed. Lauda, after an introductory tour, wondered aloud why Ferrari didn’t win every race. Which is precisely my point.
In Enzo’s shaded view, drivers withered in the reflected brilliance of Tazio Nuvolari. Cars were his team’s lifeblood; most of his drivers – Gilles Villeneuve was an exception – were merely employees.
Even Ascari, on the eve of his completing two dominant seasons, 1952 and 1953, felt undervalued and joined Lancia.
It was clear to everyone except Luigi Musso and Eugenio Castellotti that Juan Fangio was the team’s number one in 1956; the Italians, vying in vain for Enzo’s favour, couldn’t see beyond their rivalry. Fangio won the world championship thanks to the clear-sightedness of Peter Collins – his British team-mate demurred and handed him his car at Monza – but did not give Ferrari a backwards glance. And Enzo did nothing to dissuade the departure of the greatest driver of the era.
Mike Hawthorn, probably in the knowledge that this was to be his last season come what may, grabbed control of the team in 1958, while former golden boy Collins, who had blotted his nudge-nudge status by getting married, was put under extra pressure to perform by Enzo’s threats of demotion – and crashed to his death.
Phil Hill, cerebral to the point of fretful, detached himself from the Ferrari fray as his team-mate and title rival Wolfgang von Trips tied himself in nervy knots. It didn’t help that Enzo occasionally plopped hotheaded hotshoes Ricardo Rodriguez and Willy Mairesse into this explosive mix.
That season, 1961, was the epitome of the screwed-up Scuderia: multi-car entries; a rota of drivers; and a semi-works team. It won the world drivers’ and constructors’ titles while triggering a subsequent slump of Titanic proportions and the defection of several key staff in 1962. The situation got so bad that Hill was convinced to join the new and ultimately shambolic ATS team.
Barring the constructors’ honours obtained in the topsy-turvy 1982 and 1983 seasons, plus those of the equally matched Kimi Räikkönen/Massa 2007-2008 era, the remainder of Ferrari’s 31 F1 titles have been secured with an obviously strong number one at its helm – even if that meant Villeneuve selflessly playing the game in Jody Scheckter’s 1979.
John Surtees in the early 1960s was the first Ferrari driver to bring outside influences, ideas and practices to bear on it. He found an ally in young tech chief Mauro Forghieri and an enemy in the aptly named team manager Eugenio Dragoni. The latter pushed ceaselessly the cases of his lesser Italian drivers. Surtees had no problem with Lorenzo Bandini, a talented and respectful team-mate who played a controversial role in the 1964 title-decider, but Dragoni’s machinations – and Enzo’s bent ear and blind eye – wore him down and he walked in the middle of 1966.
Neither the promoted Bandini, nor Chris Amon, nor Jacky Ickx had the personality and will required to focus the team thereafter. That only came with Lauda’s arrival in 1974. The brusque and bright Austrian was a force of nature, yet even he required the help of a youthful, dynamic yet calm di Montezmolo. He also benefited from several factors not of his own making: Fiat’s increasing involvement – Enzo was more and more a potent figurehead – and the recent canning of the team’s sports-racing programme and completion of its Fiorano test track.
Ferrari’s inability to realign such factors – maximise its healthy budget, extensive facilities and on-site homogenisation – during the majority of the 1980s and 1990s is the greatest failure in F1 history. Michele Alboreto, René Arnoux, Stefan Johansson, Gerhard Berger, Jean Alesi and Ivan Capelli were not championship tickets. Ferrari even fell short when it tried the superteam approach with Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost in 1990: better, but bitter.
Only with the creation of a Scuderia that Enzo – his influence only now waning after his 1988 death – would not recognise, not even its sponsor-friendly red, did the ‘inevitable’ titles roll in: 11 in as many Schumacher seasons.
A relentless top dog with the unswerving support of all those around him is what best suits Ferrari. Alonso is the current closest approximation to Schuey in his pomp, but Vettel runs him close enough to butt heads and egos.
Hmm. If you haven’t already, think of another AN Other, Ferrari.
That’s one cool article I gotta say, enjoyable, very enjoyable. I personally prefer Berger/Alesi stuff to Alonso/Massa, at least it’s more legendary I think (the struggling Ferrari), even RAI/MAS was more enjoyable to watch.
Gotta agree with Iberian, there was something about the Alboreto/Johansson and Berger/Alesi eras. Even though the car was by and large terrible (although nearly always beautiful) the fact was that the drivers were racing equally with passion, and this was worth so much more than the calculated victory machines of the Schuey/ Alonso epoch.
As an F1 fan growing up in the 80s, Ferrari will always be synonymous to me with sporting, valiant underachievement. That’s the way I preferred them.
Agreed. A struggling or boom-and-slump Scuderia was easier to like than the winning machine it became.
And it’s so right that Jean Alesi never raced a V10 Ferrari. V12 emotion all the way.
But the Scuderia we loved perhaps took not winning rather too far.
Excellent read! I remember Benson being thrown out of the Williams motorhome @ 1996 Spa iirc, and then subsequently writing some sort of apology in Autosport. These days hes a mere shadow of the once capable reporter he was, doing a public love affair with lewis Hamilton that would shame Todt on Schumacher. He was also incorrect saying that Hamilton would renew at Mclaren, or his constant and incorrect digs at Schumacher.
Vettel currently drives a car designed by Newey, with an underpowered engine vs the Ferrari and the Mercedes ‘reliability enhanced’ powerhouse. This gave him 34 poles, 25 wins and on the verge of a third, consecutive title.
In the other corner is Ferrari, a big name, busy now since 2009 with ‘restructuring’, and after only 3 years discovered their windtunnel is still giving bad numbers, unable to make tyres work for qualifying since 2006, a design office that does nothing but copy other peoples inventions (like Mclarens exhaust, front suspension angles, etc) and totally formed around Alonso.
Why on earth would Vettel want to swap to a team with so many uncertainties? The engine format? Hes beating Ferrari with an inferior engine already. What if Renault comes up with a good engine package for 2014? And in all likelyhood, the many rule restrictions wont make a lot of difference between them either. They said the same about the switch from V10 to V8 and look how close everyone is.
I believe Vettel has some get out clauses in his contract, and maybe he did speak to Ferrari. But they have to significantly improve to lure him away from Newey imo.
Very insightful article. It does seem that “super teams” can’t last, or sometimes even function. Senna/Prost, Prost/Mansell, Shumacher/anybody that challenged him, Hamilton/Alonso, come to mind. Ferrari shouldn’t put Vettel & Alonso together. Better to have an integrated team, but let the drivers have at it (as at McLaren).
And personally I dont like a struggling boom-and-slump Ferrari. They gave me enough heart attacks in the early nineties. The V12 years were great, if only the reliability was a bit better. This was adressed with the signing of Brawn. Byrne was the visionair behind their then state-of-the-art design tools. Culminating in one of the most beatiful Ferraris ever made: the F2002.
But eversince Domenicali leads Ferrari, its gliding back to those early 90s, with a lack of vision, fire fighting on a day to day basis. The best thing they have now, is Alonso. Even Montezemolo sees that. And because of his backing of Massa, they renewed the hugely underperforming Brasilian I think.
After 8 races into 2012 season, Alonso had 4 podiums, 2 wins and 111 points was leading the chapionship. Massa scored a total of 11 points, and was behind Maldonado, Bruno Senna, Perez, Kobayashi and DiResta.
And because Ferrari likes to do everything Alonso wants, i seriously doubt theyll sign Vettel. They risk losing the 2013 wcc, or even the wdc because Massa is not a rear gunner like Button or Webber, but they keep Alonso happy.
I think the future doesnt look that good for Ferrari. They could do with a strong, visionary team leader like Todt. Domenicali just isnt good enough, likeable as he is.
I too “suffered” through the mid 80s through to the early 2000s when the Ferraris had the lovely V12s (well starting in 89 they did, the V6 turbos weren’t too effective either, except for that glorious day at Monza in ’88… and of course the last two races of 87) but not the dominance.
While I preferred Alesi to Schumacher, I’d love nothing more than another round of Ferrari dominance (though with a V12, I’m still a dreamer…). Frankly, 2002 and 20004 weren’t quite good enough. I’d like to have a 1988 style domination. I’ll even give Silverstone to the guys from Woking… ;-)
In the meantime, more importantly, Forza Felipe! Glad to see him gathering back up some of the form lost in that incident and the months following. He’s always been one of my favorites since he came in to F1 with Sauber all these many years ago.
For now anyway, what in past three years would convince SV to go to a team that has not been the equal to Red Bull? And I can’t see it from Ferrari’s point either, could Seb have ‘dragged’ the car to the same results FA has this year? Lastly can’t see FA wanting any mate that could truly challenge.
But then again Luca et al have me wondering at times if they value opera more than results.
i have never been and am unlikely to ever be a Ferrari fan, the only time i had time for these Machiavellian masters was when Jody and Gilles drove for them, but reading the horrors of 1950′s and the unnecessary death of Musso and the terrible tragedy of Castelloti – I’m not sure Peter’s death could be laid at the old man’s door though,
the only thing i am nostalgic for are those gorgeous engines V12′s rule!!
this is a good article Paul, I for one have never understood the passion Ferrari inspired – far too ruthless for my tastes and how would Seb get on? there again why would Seb go there?
chris b, I wonder if you have the same concerns with the Lotus of Chapmans day.
Many drivers went to injury or death due to possibly overly light components, as others noted at the time. BCE’s classic quote to Rindt about “do you want to win the WDC, or do you want to stay alive” comes to mind.
Ah, the beautiful V12′s……….can they build a 1.6 litre V12?
If so, I wouldn’t mind one in my Golf…………..
Great Job Felipe!
Vettel to Ferrari is not going to happen for one simple reason.
Money! Nobody will out bid Deitrich M and his energy drink bilions. That is why Lewis left McLaren, money not performance .
Second reason, why would Vettel leave to be called Baby Schummi át Ferrari? Paul did you jóin MotorSport to be called Little Nigel?
Alonso is solid, delivers and is low maintenance.
Uhm, I think Vettel is not half as interested in money as Hamilton, Chris. Vettel doesnt even have a (girl band) manager.
I do think its worth noting that there are some parallels between Ferrari and Mclaren, though.
They havent won a wcc in how many years? A wdc by the skin of their teeth vs…Massa. And for all the crowing about Ron Dennis in this magazine, think about this:
- Montoya left.
- Raikonen left.
- Alonso left.
- Hamilton leaves.
- Mercedes left.
And, not insignificant:
- Adrian Newey left.
Almost all of them left in a fight with Ron Dennis (Kimi calling him a control freak) and saying Mclaren corporate structure was suffocating.
Bill,
Very fair and excellent observations. Ron is obsessive with the details of every aspect of his company. I bet he even picks the brand of restrooom/loo/water closet paper.
Yes, that is something I Never considered. Very well could have influenced Hamilton.
We have read and know that most drivers care not for the rich history of the sport. (Exceptions being the Franchitti boys)
Do You tihink Vettel would go to Ferrari after all what he has achieved at Red Bull?
Bill, I really don’t understand why so many people (especially in Britain) are so destructive in regards to Ron Dennis. I mean, ok, he might not appear to be Mr. nice guy at first glance and the like, but there’s just absolutely no question that the man is an achiever and very successful individual and that his credits and merits far outdo his other, rather insignificant flaws as we all human beings do tend to have, albeit against nowhere near so much in achievement…
If people leave, as you point out, it’s also because they’ve all come to his company in the first place, becoming more valuable with the McLaren know-how acquired and thereafter lured out to other competitors, not quite a bad indirect compliment to Mr. Dennis’s operation then, I think…
If he is obsessive and overly demanding in his approach, well that has proved to be a rather successful modus operandi in time, don’t you think, which I myself like and apply also wherever I can on my own, and it pays off I shall say.
It seems to me that people are jealous and envious of his success and thus that explains your pointing out at these men’s slightest flaw.
And the same negative attitude can be noticed towards others like a certain Mr. Ferrari, Senna and Shumacher by the way, about whom I say and maintain, not perfect, but the absolute best in their trade!
Sort of ‘punishing’ them (envious) for their overwhelming success by clinging to their small defects?
Let’s be fair.
Dear Carlos,
First of all Im not British. Im Dutch, hence my bad grammar and spelling. ;) Whether im jealous of Dennis is irrelevant to those stated facts. And I also only stated them to compare to this article about Ferraris (former) flaws, even if it was very nicely written and friendly of tone.
I respect Dennis for what he did in the 80s and early 90′s. Poaching Newey away from Williams (who refused to give him more control over the team) was a masterstroke. But after that, his cynical approach to F1 made me no fan of his. And despite all the big (Ojeh/Merc/Bahrainy royals) money, Mclaren havent really been a dominant form the last few years, and seen lots of those big names leave.
Early this season Autosport published an interview with Mclaren Aplied Technology director, saying Vettel made the difference in 2011 despite Mclaren sometimes having a better car.
That article got pulled within a few hours ‘on request’. ‘You dont bite the hand that feeds you’ said one Autosport editor on twitter. That stunt had Ron Dennis name written all over it. Only one control freak in F1 that pulls strings to get very respected media like Autosport make a fool out of themselves. God only knows what he threatened those boys with if they didnt pull it.
Its also one of the reasons Im starting to look to Motorsport magazine more. I hope that journalistic independence, is still very highly valued here, and that Roebuck will say ‘over my dead body’ before articles are being pulled without explanation.
Vettel would be crazy to leave Red Bull for any other team on the grid, including Ferrari. Period.
But Ferrari makes drivers crazy when they are there and when they think they want to be there. That’s the point.
Baby Nigel? I first wrote for Motor Sport in 1992. And I joined to take advantage of its private jet and gin palace moored at Monte Carlo. Plus the Luncheon Vouchers of course.
Good for Felipe, he seems to be getting back his mojo; if that’s the case; Alonso will have a strong No. 2 keeping him on his toes, controllable enough to avoid intra-team issues and capable to get the team into the constructors championship fight; time will tell.
I’m afraid the Vetel – Ferrari talk is no more than great press; good for Ferrari iconic image and also good for Vetel; come 2014 he may just end up with F1’s biggest retainer.
Whom Ferrari should be tempting is Newey; don’t think he would fall for it; but you just never know.
Paul, good for You! Free Gin and Lunch. What about the free test Car Jags that I heard Gordon talk about in the podcast?
Let’s face it. Records are meant to be broken.
Nigel takes the place of Jenks, You could become the next Nigel.
Question for You, Whom do You think hás done more for Britain in F1, Ron Dennis;or, Colin Chapman?
Maybe Thats a debate. Like Fangio,Clark and Senna?
Michele Alboreto, René Arnoux, Stefan Johansson, Gerhard Berger, Jean Alesi and Ivan Capelli were not championship tickets. Ferrari even fell short when it tried the superteam approach with Nigel Mansell ……
Hmmmmmmmmmmm – so how many pre F1 championships did Mansell win compared to each of the above drivers given that the lower formulae demonstrate driving skill rather than winning directly due to the technology prevalent in F1 ? Mansell moved to Ferrari at the same time as John Barnard and reaped the rewards of a very good designer, But as soon as Prost moved into the team, Mansell was history, hence his histrionics at the 1990 British GP.
Any of those denigrated above could’ve done at least as good if not better a job than Mansell given the cars he had.
Wouldn’t it be interesting if Massa won the first 3 races next year?
Dear Chris K,
Chapman, by a distance.
Dear Chris H,
I was referring to F1. And Alboreto (2), Arnoux (4), Johansson (0), Berger (1), Alesi (0) and Capelli (0) arrived at Ferrari with just seven GP wins between them.
Mansell arrived with 13 and Prost 39. By the time they were ‘united’ at Ferrari they had 54 between them.
There’s only one F1 superteam here and it’s not Berger and Alesi, as much as I admire, respect and like them.
I would also argue that only Capelli jumped straight into a truly uncompetitive car. The others drove cars designed by Dr Harvey Postlethwaite, Gustav Brunner (much admired by Adrian Newey) and John Barnard. Hardly design duffers.
F1 is about making your opportunity and grabbing it, shaking it and never letting go. That’s precisely what Mansell did and the others, hand on heart, did not.
Finally, I would argue – ooh, get him – that success in the F3 and F2 of that period required a good team/testing/tweaks to gain a tenth or two/a good car/engine/tyres. Did the others have more of that than did Mansell and were thus flattered?
Vettel should (and will) only go to Ferrari when he is given equal status and with Alonso there, it won’t happen. Fernando is far too threatened by the young German to allow him that type of latitude within the Scuderia. It still haunts him that he could not overcome Hamilton at McLaren, during their time as team-mates.
Hi Michael,
I think a lot of anti-Alonso people are starting to wonder what exactly happened in 2007 with Hamiltons current results in mind. ;)
You do make me think about another factor: would Ecclestone like Vettel against Alonso at Ferrari? My guess says: no.
Massa has always been a riddle to me. I went to the Melbourne GP in 2008 which Hamilton walked while Massa seemed determined to take everyone out, well he did manage a few cars at the first corner namely one young S Vettel and he took out Coulthard later in the race at the same corner. At the time I thought he would be lucky to keep his seat for the whole year if he continued like that. Then he settled down and narrowly lost the championship to Hamilton who I thought would have it all wrapped up by Hungary based on his performance in Melbourne.