What Happenned To Ferrari?

Just as I predicted, Ferrari are having as many problems as they had last season.

Many of you ask why, here is my analysis:

The problem stems from the 2004 off season. Ferrari did not prepare early enough for the introduction of the new rules, and they released their F2005 earlier than expected, which meant that they did not test enough. All the other teams prepared well in advance for the aerodynamic and tire rule changes. Bridgestone did not get the job done with their tires, Michelin out did them big time. All through the 2005 season, Ferrari struggled for pace, and could not get through a whole race successfully on one set of Bridgestone tires. Their qualifying laps were awful since their tires needed a large amount of time to warm up. Last but not least, do not forget the the F2005 was the first car in six years that was not designed by Ferrari genius Rory Byrne. The F2005 was designed by Aldo Costa, he missed big time.

So here comes 2006, you think they would have learned their lesson from 2005. It seems like many people at Ferrari are making bad decisions. First of all, they release their 2006 challenger, the 248 F1, but the majority of the time they are testing a F2004 with a limited V10, I still don’t understand to this day why. You would think that they would test the car they will use in the 2006 season. Secondly, they waste a lot of valuable testing time on Valentino Rossi, not worth it in my opinion. Thirdly, Aldo Costa designed the car again.

Now 3 races in, and only 1 podium in the first race and a pole position, (remember they tested in Bahrain in the off season, so it does not surprise me that they did well there). A few points in the second race, and disaster in the 3^rd race. They showed up to the Australian grand prix with the wrong tires and basically destroyed 3 cars (Massa destroyed 1 in qualifying). The reason they brought the wrong tries is because they did not properly test for these conditions in Fiorano because of all the rain. Which brings me to another question, why didn’t they test with the other teams in Barcelona?

On top of all this, the team is not getting any younger, and a lot of key people have already left or will be leaving soon. And king Schumi is not getting any younger, but he is the only one with passion left. It seems like the team has lost their motivation to win. They are not testing and practicing as much as they used to. And finally, Felipe Massa, who can’t even brake properly, this was a bad move. The only reason he is in there is because of Jean Todt’s son, Nicholas Todt, Felipe’s agent. But then again, he is only a 1 year fill in, because the new king is on his way, Kimi Raikkonen.

Many people ask if Schumi still has it, I believe he does, but Ferrari has to give him the car to do it. A man of his talent and success deserves a team that is 100% behind him and that will give him a championship winning car every race, right now he does not have this, and this is why the results are not acceptable at the moment.

Being the die hard Ferrari and Schumi fan that I am, I am not losing hope, I believe that they will bounce back, but they have to act quickly, because Renault is already in the lead by a big margin. Ferrari needs the discipline and motivation they had over the past 6 years.