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Mon, 18 February 2008 04:35 |
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http://autocollections.blogspot.com/
Review of the Year: World Champions - Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro
There are times when you wonder what it will take to stop Michael
Schumacher winning the Formula 1 World Championship. This year he
picked
up his sixth title, his fourth in a row. Next year he will be the only
World Champion racing in F1. Schumacher has broken almost every record
that exists in World Championship history and even his harshest
critics
have to admit that he drives at a level way above all his rivals. The
flaws that have always been there remain the same but Michael is
simply
better than the rest. He won the title in 2003 despite having
obviously
inferior tires for most of the year. Offset against that was the fact
that the Ferrari was a much better car than most of the others,
probably
even better than the Williams.
But all this was hidden to the casual observer. For them it must seem
that Formula 1 is deeply dull. The same man wins year after year, no
matter what the rules say. The fact that Michael Schumacher and
Ferrari
came through and won in 2003 is testament to the team's enormous
strength and also to its less wholesome side. In the midseason Ferrari
was utterly humiliated in Hungary where Michael Schumacher was lapped
by
the winner Fernando Alonso. Ferrari's response was to stir up a heap
of
trouble about tires, claiming that Michelin was running illegal
rubber.
The French tires were not illegal and some of the Ferrari management
was
lucky to get away without being sued for slander.
Ferrari chose to interpret the rules one way; Michelin interpreted it
another way; the other teams were forced to play it safe in the face
of
possible problems and while the whole business resulted in no action
by
the FIA, Michelin was knocked sideways, as it was intended to be, and
the development programmes of the rival teams were disrupted badly.
When
the F1 circus got back together again at Monza Ferrari was suddenly
competitive again. In part it was due to the circuit but there is no
doubt that the disruption helped the Ferrari cause.
http://autocollections.blogspot.com/
Down at Maranello they consider this sort of thing to be acceptable.
The
World Championship, they like to say, is like a war and to win you do
whatever it takes. You take no prisoners. The rivals do not tend to
fight in the same way although there are often rumors suggesting that
Ferrari and the FIA enjoy a rather too healthy relationship. This is a
ridiculous argument, because the FIA more than anyone other than
Bernie
Ecclestone knows that too much Ferrari success is bad for the sport,
so
helping the Italian team achieve success is counter to its best
interests. Some people in F1 see conspiracies everywhere...
The funny thing about this is that when Ferrari finds itself on the
receiving end of heavy tactics - as happened this year when the press
went for the team at Monza - it does not like it. Ross Brawn, the
architect of Ferrari's war-like philosophies felt that he had been
ambushed in a press conference and did not like it. In fact he was
very
angry.
Well, if you live by the sword you should be prepared to die by the
sword as well. It is no good bleating about it not being fair. All is
fair in love and war...
The purists in the sport argue that Ferrari's single-mindedness is
damaging to the sport. The team's absolute refusal to consider a
testing
ban upset a lot of people because it forced everyone to spend more
money. Ferrari's biggest advantage is that it has two test tracks on
hand at any given moment. But, in the fullness of time, such tactics
will come back and hurt Ferrari. When a team embarks on a policy of
winning at all costs, respect for the team as sportsmen is lost.
Ferrari
will pay in other ways: when a new Concorde Agreement is settled and
new
financial and legislative deals agreed, one can expect to see Ferrari
suffer. Rival teams will gang up on Ferrari and outvote the team and
the
advantages will be lost.
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Ferrari's ruthless approach has been hugely successful but the sport
has
paid the price, as was seen in Austria in 2002 and this year in the
team's refusal to accept any testing ban. There were also the
suspicions
of espionage with Toyota. The stories first emerged in the Spring but
Ferrari did not have enough evidence to back up the allegations.
Nothing
happened. At the end of the year Ferrari made an official complaint.
The
police raided Toyota but no charges came as a result of this. In other
words there was still no evidence to back up the claims. Toyota paid
the
price with a huge amount of negative publicity despite the fact that
nothing was proved. Very disruptive, especially back in Japan. Still,
one must conclude that Ferrari is ultimately afraid of the financial
muscle of the Japanese giant which is intent on buying its way to the
World Championship - and can afford to outspend Ferrari.
And this is where the team has a long term problem because Ferrari
does
not have the financial power to be spending the kind of money that has
been spent on F1 in recent years. Now that the company has
shareholders
there will be even more pressure to curb costs. The team can only
raise
so much in sponsorship and so in the end there need to be economic
cutbacks. That will hurt research and development above all else and
that will mean that gradually Ferrari will fall behind as others spend
more. The irony is that the only way in which these trends can be
reversed is with rule-changes!
Away from the politics one has to say that Ferrari did another
extraordinary job. The cars were once again so reliable that it was
almost embarrassing. Schumacher made more mistakes this year that he
has
for a long time and quite often Rubens Barrichello did better than his
team leader but it was always clear that Rubens would do as he was
told
and that Michael would be the man to benefit. Towards the end of the
year it is said that Barrichello received an offer to race for
Williams
in 2005 and turned it down because there was more money on offer from
Ferrari. If this is the case, Barrichello has marked his card. At
Ferrari he is very unlikely to ever win a World Championship but if he
prefers to pile up money in the bank and miss out on the chance to
beat
Ferrari then his name will be quietly removed from a number of lists
for
the future.
Perhaps in a world where winning is everything and money appears to be
power, such criticisms are not really relevant and we should simply
appreciate greatness when we see it.
http://autocollections.blogspot.com/
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| Re: the best auto blog in blogger [message #794713 ] |
Mon, 18 February 2008 06:57 |
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"moccahuntz" <anisahhamzah [at] gmail.com> wrote in message
news:b9e41dd6-31bc-4fa3-9154-6bf6ccfbfbe5 [at] e10g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
> http://autocollections.blogspot.com/
>
>
> Review of the Year: World Champions - Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro
>
> There are times when you wonder what it will take to stop Michael
> Schumacher winning the Formula 1 World Championship. This year he
> picked
> up his sixth title, his fourth in a row.
Very timely. Schumacher retired at the end of the 2006 season.
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