I really do not understand Ferrari. Most of my predictions concerning the team over the past couple of years seem to be coming true - but I'm not kidding myself, I do not understand why the Italian team behaves in the way it does. It is not as if they could not do what I do - look at their history and deduce from it how they will react in each situation - so why do they continue to repeat the apparently irrational mistakes of the past?
That test driver, Michael Something-or-other
The dispersal of the dream team - Schumacher, Brawn, Todt, Byrne and even Stepney - gave Ferrari only two ways to go: either they could create a second combination of outstanding talents to mimic the blueprint provided by those who had departed, or they could return to the chaos of the empty years. The first option was probably impossible (no obvious candidates for each job spring to mind), so it was easy to suggest that they would become the Ferrari of old once more. So far, so good - we saw the beginning of the decline last year in the disappearance of the reliability that has become expected in the previous decade and in a series of inexplicable tactical decisions and farcical pitlane incidents. The Australian GP merely confirmed that the decline continues.
What I do not understand is the loyalty the team generates in its employees. The rumors of Michael being forced out, rather than retiring of his own free will may be incorrect, but it still strikes me as odd that the man should be still kicking his heels around the team. After a year of not really knowing what to do with him, the team has given him a job as a sort of occasional test driver - meaning that they are still unsure how to use his undoubted experience in a sensible way. Why does he hang around as though he has nothing better to do?
Then there is Jean Todt, the man who stayed on despite the pressure to get lost and who tried to minimize the effect of the changes through 2007. His ultimate extraction from the team to Ferrari CEO lasted so brief a time that Luca's statement that Todt had accomplished all his goals as CEO was just laughable. Obviously he intended only to pick up a few pay checks before leaving.
Again, the stories of political strife behind the strange saga of Todt's career moves may be wrong, but there remains this odd loyalty to the company that does not seem to sit well with the man's last twelve months with the team. They say he is in Sepang purely coincidentally, but it seems just a little too convenient that he is there in the pits after the disasters of Melbourne. Even so, what can he possibly achieve there without undermining whatever authority Stefano Domenicali has left?
It is a complete conundrum to me. The loyalty or whatever it is that keeps ex-employees hanging around, hoping to be needed, seems without foundation to me and may even be working against the new team struggling to find its way forward. It would make more sense if Montezemolo were to make a clean break, seeing that he has decided (apparently) that Ferrari will be an Italian team once more. Let him have the courage of his convictions, say thank you and goodbye to the departees and allow them to get involved with something else.
I can only presume that this strange situation is the result of Luca being a politician. He has taken the bold step of imposing his will on the team but must hedge his bets if he is not to risk castigation by the Italian media if his plans do not succeed. The likelihood is that, whatever happens to the fortunes of the team, Montezemolo will retain his godlike status in Italy and all problems will be blamed on others who failed to grasp the vision.
Prime target must be poor Domenicali. As team boss, he sits very prominently on the skyline, begging to be shot at the moment anything goes wrong. Already the Italian press jostle for the best sniping position - and the hapless man has to duck by hinting at the McLaren ECU as the cause of Melbourne's problems (merely to gain time while the team found out what really went wrong). Blaming the enemy worked well enough last year but its credibility will wear thin in time and then Stefano will have to be pretty agile to dodge the bullets.
His one hope must be the car. It has proved itself quick enough to deliver the goods but the continuing reliability problems must keep Domenicali awake nights. He has to knock that team into shape in very quick time, despite the handicap of old faces hovering in the background, and he can expect no help from Luca. I wouldn't have his job for anything.
Why do Ferrari go through these antics? Have they not learned the lesson of the Todt years, that the team must be allowed to concentrate on their task and not be interfered with from above? Surely even Luca must be able to look back on their history and see where they went wrong before. Yet he continues to make their task more difficult with unhelpful statements to the press and allows the exiles to undermine the men that he put in their place.
Either he is playing a game far too devious for me to fathom or Luca di Montezemolo is a fool. And I really cannot believe the latter...