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But enough of the plotting and scheming! Politics were certainly not always to blame. Ultimately, the organisation of a team is channelled into the production of a racing car, hopefully coupled to a competitive engine, and if they can't get that right, it doesn't matter how organised you are ... just ask McLaren about 1995. In quite a number of years, the Ferrari simply wasn't good enough, nothing dramatic about it. And more often than not, the problem was with the engine, which they produced in-house at Maranello, as pretty much the only team to do so.
Try 1984, for example. After the 126C3 model had been both quick and fairly reliable in 1983, the 126C4 was neither. Alboreto's average qualifying position was just below 7th, while Arnoux's average was around 10th. Alboreto was also hit by four engine failures in races during the season. While eventually Ferrari did finish 2nd in the constructor's championship, McLaren had outscored them by 86 points, 143.5 to 57.5. Basically, the 1984 Ferrari was not a championship contender. |
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The same could be said of 1987 and 1988. In both years the Ferrari was a good chassis, but in both seasons, other teams had the Honda turbo engine, and that's pretty much all there is to say. The F1/87 model was left to play second fiddle to the Williams in 1987, and sometimes to Senna's Lotus and Prost's McLaren as well, although Gerhard Berger put in some gutsy drives and won the last two races of the year. In 1988 the F1/87/88C was a clear second best behind the rampaging McLaren/Honda. Mind you, when that MP4/4 won 15 of 16 races, second best was a long, long way behind.
That non-McLaren victory though, held in front of the tifosi at Monza, was something to behold. A Maranello hero to this day, F1 reject Jean-Louis Schlesser nerfed Ayrton Senna off while being lapped, handing Berger the victory he had dreamt about the night before, and Ferrari a cathartic 1-2 at home just a week after the death of Enzo Ferrari himself. Ferrari were once again McLaren's main challengers in 1989, and though the engine wasn't their only Achilles' heel, it certainly was a factor. Take Hockenheim, for example, the ultimate power circuit. Here the scarlet cars would have finished 3rd and 4th behind the McLarens had Berger not retired, a check of the fastest race laps makes for interesting reading. Senna set the fastest lap at 1:45.884, with Prost on a 1:45.977. Mansell was 3rd quickest, but on a 1:48.722, with Berger 4th on a 1:48.931. Need we say more? |
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After wallowing in the nadir of the early 1990s, by 1994 Ferrari had picked up the pieces and were on the way back up. Once again the 1994 and 1995 were well-handling cars, such that Gerhard Berger took the 412T1 to victory in the demolition derby which was Hockenheim in 1994 (Ferrari's first race victory since Spain 1990), and then when Michael Schumacher tested the 412T2 at the end of 1995, he found it better to drive than his championship-winning Benetton. But once again, the engine was the crucial factor in Ferrari being unable to head the pack. This time, instead of Honda dominance, it was the turn of Renault. To put it into perspective, in 1995 Ferrari provided the one and only non-Renault win, Jean Alesi's maiden victory in Canada.
Very few titles are won from the position of chaser rather than leader. Prost's win in 1986 and Schumacher's in 1995 are exceptions to the rule. And so it was that in 1998, Ferrari once again fell short of the mark, this time to the McLaren/Mercedes combination, with Mika Hakkinen at the wheel. When the Woking cars notched up an easy 1-2 in Melbourne, the writing was on the wall for Ferrari, and although Schumacher quickly got into his stride, the fact was that he was chasing down Hakkinen's advantage all year, and in a Ferrari F300 that was inferior to the McLaren MP4/13 anyway, especially in terms of aerodynamics. |
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