Who knows what you’re going to get from Ferrari these days but there are some certainties, namely it’s a red car, and it comes with a heaped side portion of Italian. Let’s just hope the only bottles we get from the Scuderia this year stay in the VIP sections eh?
Off to a good start, mind. What Mercedes failed at yesterday, Ferrari nailed today. A proper F1 launch even the 90s and early 00s would’ve been proud of. Who needs the Spice Girls when you’ve got an orchestra, a choir, and uh, a DJ? 45 minutes of presser? The whole event was 45 minutes today, and you didn’t have to wait until the end to see the car. At least Mercedes seemed to have taken it in their strides, with a witty response yesterday to Ferrari teasing their launch today. Worth a look if you’ve not seen it.
What was even more brilliant was it didn’t feel sterile. It didn’t feel corporate. If yesterday was Ron Dennis, then today was certainly Flavio Briatore. Yes the tricolore talk was a bit forced down you, but hey it’s Ferrari. The only way it could get more Italian would be if they were to sing the national anthem at the start and bring out Francisco Totti halfway through just for the bants.
Back to the car; no real surprises here. Very similar to last year’s but just fixed now. Gone is that pointless black swoop over the engine. Even the Mission Winnow doesn’t look out of place anymore. Numbers are a bit meh but no one was expecting anything groundbreaking from Ferrari really. The biggest surprises may well yet come when people way smarter than me get their teeth into the aerodynamics. People already looking at that bargeboard, and I reckon the wheelbase is longer. My eyes are dodgy to be fair.
The strength that Leclerc showed from the ‘European season’ onwards certainly established himself amongst today’s racing elite. Winning the pole trophy in your first season in a top car, when qualifying caused problems in your rookie season, whilst dethroning Lewis Hamilton in the process? Now that’s impressive. Arguably in half a season he turned Ferrari into his own team, and probably sent Sebastian Vettel into retirement. Where does he go from here? He can only go upwards, right? I mean car permitting, he’s already shown he’s a deft hand in pressure scenarios. Think Belgium and Austria where he was unlucky to come away second best, both against two of F1’s best in Hamilton and Verstappen. If he can rein it in a bit, I’m thinking about Italy here, then he will become an all round driver and unbeatable on his day. I guess Italy was him putting down a marker, argue for and against his defending all you like but it was a show of dominance, in front of the Tfosi, in your first season in scarlet. That’s championship winning material.
Don’t get me wrong, this is not me dismissing Vettel either. I was hoping the Singapore GP last season was going to see the renaissance of the four time champ. It’s just a shame he hasn’t been able to string the results together. Trying too hard? Burden of leading the team? Couldn’t handle the pressure of a championship rivalry? Choose any answer you like, it’s just not working. Unless we see a Vettel you could even begin to compare to his Red Bull days, it’s hard to see him staying with Ferrari beyond 2020. He may even choose to leave the sport himself, depends what seats are available and feasible (he wouldn’t go to Red Bull if it’s Verstappen’s team at the moment, right?) I suppose. I’d love for him to stay. He’s got the character and the talent to merit his stay, it’s just there’s too many Sbinnalas (r/formuladank) at the moment to warrant a place at the top. Fingers crossed he pushes on this year and shows us his old form.
Like I was saying, who knows what we’re going to get from Ferrari these days. They’ve started making some noises again about a complete redesign for this season. Who knows? I’m guessing Mercedes aren’t going to feel like they’ve got something to hide in testing this year. But then again Ferrari might want to set their stall out early and spurs-y it up again like last year. Let’s hope they’ve got their downforce fixed, so we do have a competitive championship, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Red Bull sneaked ahead this year. Their ending to the season was promising and Honda are showing no signs of slowing down, literally. A competitive Ferrari from weekend to weekend should be the goal, forget the championship. If they’re consistently up there every weekend the championship will sort itself. Keep the confidence in their drivers and focus on 2021.
George Talks 