So far this F1 season, Ferrari have been a little more like a lame horse, than a prancing one, and one really wonders if the team has the passion to actually do anything about it. From Melbourne until today’s race in Barcelona, the Ferrari team’s actions have constituted a comedy of errors, embarassing the team, and disadvantaging their two, very capable, drivers.
It’s plain to see that Formula One has experienced a regime change this year, but the change has been further magnified by the poor progress made by Ferrari, McLaren and BMW over the off-season. These three championship contenders are now faffing around in mid-field, fighting for the minor points places, whilst names like Button, Glock and Vettel vy for the wins.
The question to be asked, then, is “what has happened to Ferrari?”
In Malaysia, back in March, we saw the first in a series of ‘unforgivable’ mistakes made by the team: Felipe Massa was not sent out for a second run in the first qualifying session, and ended up 16th on the grid. You’d have thought that the Prancing Horse would be once bitten, twice shy…. but the mistake was repeated, in all of it’s stupidity, this weekend in Barcelona (albeit, with Kimi Raikkonen falling victim to the poor call this time around).
As if that wasn’t enough, today’s race was another demonstration of gross incompetence on the part of the Scuderia, with the team failing to give Massa enough fuel to reach the finish at full pace. Granted, Massa usually drives a bit harder (in terms of fuel consumption) than other drivers, but causing your driver to lose two (nearly three) places in a few laps, due to having to back off to conserve fuel, is not a smart move. With Massa stopping on his way back to the pits, it remains to be seen whether his car was up to the 605kg mandated end-race weight…
Come on Ferrari, get your act together, for the sake of the your two world-class drivers.
Tags: Motorsport