After either winning the title or taking the fight down to the final round in all but one of the previous 12 years, Ferrari’s championship hopes were virtually over before they had begun in what turned out to be a tumultuous 2009 season for Formula 1’s most successful team.
The Scuderia’s lowest finish in the constructors’ championship since 1993 was the depressing result, although the Maranello squad is confident that with Fernando Alonso on board from next season its slide will only prove to be a temporary one.
An off the pace car, a terrifying accident that left one of its drivers seriously injured, a starring role in the political crisis that rocked the sport, an abortive comeback for its legend champion Michael Schumacher, media mockery of its hapless substitute driver and just one victory... it was quite a year for Ferrari.
By the time Ferrari’s season reached its emotional low point when Felipe Massa suffered a fractured skull in Hungaroring qualifying, the team had already written 2009 off.
The heart of the problem was that the F60 was simply an underwhelming car.
Ferrari continued to rage at the perceived injustice of the double diffuser ruling for most of the season, but Red Bull was also caught out by the loophole and proved far more competitive than the Scuderia.
There was an element of fortune involved, though, for Ferrari’s gearbox casing did not allow a fully-fledged double diffuser to be fitted, and only a compromised version of the system ever appeared.
Ferrari had also opted for KERS – which prompted a few more rants when it became clear the device was a white elephant – but apart from thrusting the cars up the order off the line, the device proved mostly frustrating at first and was briefly shelved.
Aside from the car problems, the team also made some embarrassing errors.
Confident Massa’s initial Q1 time would suffice at Sepang, Ferrari had to watch him sit in the garage and get pushed down to an eliminated 16th as others improved.
Then in the race a bizarrely premature decision to switch to wets – while the track was still bone dry – cost Kimi Raikkonen any hope of a result.
Former head of trackside operations Luca Baldisserri was returned to a factory role in a post-Sepang shake-up, but the Q1 complacency error was repeated a few races later in Spain, this time with Raikkonen.
There might have been a morale boosting top five or even podium in China, but Massa had an electrical failure while running behind the safety car.
All of which added up to Ferrari’s worst start to a season since 1981, and a feeling of crisis reminiscent of the dark days of the early 1990s.
And while the team struggled on-track, it was also in the thick of the action in the FIA/FOTA political war, with president Luca di Montezemolo the angry teams’ main mouthpiece.
Sixth place for Raikkonen in Bahrain finally got Ferrari off the mark in the constructors’ standings, but three points from four races was no comfort for a team accustomed to title chasing.
As the summer progressed, Ferrari’s upgrades did restore some respectability, and the car’s combination of (now more trustworthy) KERS and kindness to its tyres meant the drivers were often able to turn mediocre grid slots into strong race finishes.
Raikkonen’s front row start and podium finish in Monaco, with Massa right on his tail, was a big morale boost, and was followed by Massa’s great drive from 11th to fourth in Britain and podium finish in Germany.
Then came the horror of Massa’s accident, when an errant spring from Rubens Barrichello’s car struck him on the helmet and raised fears for his life for a time.
Massa’s recovery was reassuringly swift, although he would not race again in 2009 and attention soon had to turn to a substitute.
To general amazement but huge excitement, Ferrari lined up Michael Schumacher for a shock comeback – only to find that the seven times champion had a lingering neck injury from a motorbike crash.
Ferrari therefore fell back on long-time test driver Luca Badoer, who hadn’t raced since 1999 and was pilloried when he trailed the field – not just running last, but often several seconds off the pace of 19th place – in both Valencia and Belgium.
Badoer’s errors didn’t help his cause either, and by Monza Giancarlo Fisichella had been parachuted in, following a stunning drive at Spa for Force India.
But his mediocre, point-less, performances in the closing races underlined just how tough Badoer’s task had been, and how brilliantly Massa and Raikkonen had driven to get such speed out of what was clearly a very awkward car.
Raikkonen seemed to blossom in Massa’s absence, taking four straight podiums from Hungary to Italy and giving Ferrari its only win of 2009 at Spa along the way.
Having regularly derided KERS, Ferrari found itself indebted to its system in Belgium, as it allowed Raikkonen to make up crucial ground off the line, pass shock leader Fisichella at a restart, and then fend off the Force India to the flag.
The F60’s incompatibility with double diffusers encouraged Ferrari to give up on 2009 development completely and instead press on with its design for 2010 – when a healthy Massa will be joined by Fernando Alonso.
That meant a low-key farewell for Raikkonen, ushered out to make room for Alonso, and now bound for rallying.
Ultimately Ferrari couldn’t wait for 2009 to be over.
After watching his cars trail round in the midfield in Abu Dhabi, team boss Stefano Domenicali was asked if he was planning a “big bonfire for KERS” back at the factory.
Domenicali replied that it wouldn’t just be KERS chucked into the flames, but the whole car...
Highlight: The Spa victory rescued Ferrari from the prospect of its first win-less year since 1993.
Lowlight: The terrible hours after Massa’s crash.
No comments:
Post a Comment