Ferrari trying not to panic after pointless start

The Chinese Grand Prix this weekend produced signs from McLaren Mercedes that the Woking-based Anglo-German team is starting to improve its competitive position after a shaky start to the season with both its drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen, finishing in the points in Shanghai.
Sadly, the same cannot be said for McLaren’s old Italian rivals Ferrari who are enduring their worst start to a campaign for years. With no points for either of their drivers in China and no points at the first two races in Australia and Malaysia, the Scuderia are firmly at the bottom of the league and already there is talk of them abandoning development work on this year’s car.
The suggestion was made at the weekend by the seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher who is retained as a consultant by Ferrari and who believes the moment is already not far away when the team will have decide whether it would not be better to switch its attention to next year’s machine and effectively write this season off.
That is exactly what Brawn GP did this time last year, when still under Honda ownership team principal Ross Brawn realised the 2008 challenger was hopelessly off the pace. Now he is reaping spectacular rewards as a result, with his two drivers Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello in first and second places in the championship respectively.
Stefano Domenicali, the Ferrari team principal, is trying not to panic but he admitted in China that a similar decision may not be far off and could be made after the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona on May 10. “I think we have to wait,” he said. “We need to stay cool. It is not easy, I know, but we need to stay cool because there are too many things that can change very quickly. The number one priority is to move from zero points. I think for sure we will see after Spain where we are.”
Ferrari is struggling on all fronts. Just as McLaren did, the Scuderia threw everything but the kitchen sink at last year’s title battle which Felipe Massa lost to Hamilton by one point at a thrilling last race in Brazil. That contest hoovered up a huge amount of technical resource and mental energy at the team base at Maranello, very little of which was of any relevence to the new car for this year which is governed by a new technical standard. As a result the F2009 is under-developed and is not quick enough. Added to that is a serious reliability problem with Kimi Raikkonen’s car in China being only the second to finish a race. As if those two issues were not enough, the Ferrari brainstrust on the pitwall has been making some howlers which have only compounded the technical problems.
There is no doubt that Domenicali, an engineer promoted from within at the start of 2007 and one of the most genuine individuals in the paddock, is already under pressure to keep his job. He has Luca di Montezemolo, the ambitious Ferrari president who expects championships almost as of right, breathing down his neck and the expectations of the Ferrari faithful to live up to. Inevitably comparisons are being made with his predecessor Jean Todt who masterminded the Schumacher ascendancy, along with Brawn as technical director, at a time when Ferrari was a more unpleasant outfit than now, but more successful too.
Domenicali has already re-shuffled his race team to try to improve performance and he was encouraged by Massa’s early showing in Shanghai. “For sure it is very tricky,” he said. “It is not easy. The only way we can get out from the moment is to work hard and to try to stay cool. We know we have a lot of things to do, and there is no reason to get into a panic mode because that would be worse.”
Raikkonen, the 2007 world champion, has never given the impression that he has put any effort into getting the team behind him, but he is at least saying the right things in the current crisis. “We’ll do the best that we can and I’m sure we are going to be back in a position to challenge for wins, but it will take a little while, so we just need to go through this hard time and we are definitely going to get back,” he said before leaving China.
Massa is more of a fighter and closer to the heart of the team. “It’s a very tough situation,” he said. “We are in a different condition than we were in the past but I still believe in the team. I think we have a good chance to move away from this problem. I’m very motivated to help the team get away from that. And I will do my best.”
Source:The times