ferrari

When most people think formula one the first thing that comes to mind is Ferrari. The team that really is the heart of formula one. It wouldn't survive without them.

The celebrations in Ferrari's home town of Maranello were so great on the delivery of their first championship in 21 years that they registered an earthquake - the ground was shaking so much! You can't quite imagine the same overwhelmed reaction in Woking when Mika Hakkinen delivered the title for McLaren can you?

Ferrari is the team that most drivers aspire to joing, it is really the stuff of legends. After almost fifteen years of disasterous leadership things suddenly changed in 1996 with the arrivals of Jean Todt, Michael Schumacher, Rory Byrne and Ross Brawn. Together they orchestrated one of Formula ones strongest ever comebacks.

From nowhere in 1995 they achieved three wins in 1996 and were contending right down to the line in 1997, eventually coming second in the drivers championship (admittedly Schumi was disqualified but lets not get picky!) 1998 saw them dissappointed again when Schumacher came so close, only to be let down at Suzuka. 1999 would have been their year only for Schumacher to break his leg in a major accident at Silverstone. Eddie Irvine did his best but he's not Micheal Schumacher.

Then came 2000, for the first time they probably had the edge, their car was at least the eqaul of McLaren. They started well winning the first three races. Two more were won in the middle of the season, and then as if to put the final nail in McLaren's coffin they turned in a devastating winning streak of four victories at the end. The championship was theirs.

If 2000 had been a bit of a struggle 2001 was a doddle. There was never any real competition and Michael led from day one. His nearest challenge came from David Coulthard and even that ended over fifty points behind.

The only criticism levelled at Ferrari is that they are too much a one-driver team. But then there is nothing in the rules that says this isn't allowed. And even given their clear bias towards Michael it's still difficult to see this accounts for all of Rubens Barrichello's sixty + points difference to his teammate.

Even in qualifying the difference between the two is enourmous, Michael outqualified Rubens by 16:1. His average grid position was 1.7, the best in the field. Rubens was third with an average position of 4.5. Over the whole season Rubens lost over ten seconds to his teammate in qualifying. An enourmous margin.

With things being as successful as they are and Rubens' inability to do anything about Michael's dominance it's hard to imagine Ferrari changing their system because when it works it is lethal. Expect them to win again in 2002 although probably by a lesser margin.

Constructors championships will more interesting though. If Michael wins the championship it is very unlikely that Rubens will come second, and may well find himself well beaten, by possibly both Williams' and McLaren's. With two William's doing well it's quite possible that Ferrari could find themselves losing their constructors crown - for that you need to equal cars. Not just one star driver.