If there is anything that we all have plenty of, it is opinions. We carry them about with us and are ready to present them on the slightest of pretexts. This is admirably illustrated when we come to Ferrari's situation at present, some, like myself, suggesting that their failure to dominate this year is part of an inevitable decline resulting from the dissolution of their dream team, others feeling that it is merely a blip in their fortunes and success will return in the coming races.
Kimi Raikkonen
Everyone has a favorite solution, too, and this week some big names have been offering their prescriptions. Cesare Fiorio, who ran the team before Jean Todt happened along (and therefore dubiously qualified to say anything - Ferrari were hardly overburdened with victories during his reign), feels that there is nothing wrong with the car. The fault lies with those who decide strategy and with the drivers themselves, apparently.
His solution is to appoint one driver as team leader and he suggests Raikkonen as best qualified for this role, in spite of his problems at the moment. Marc Surer, a driver for Arrows in the 1980s, suspects that Raikkonen has lost motivation, however, while Raikkonen's team mate, Felipe Massa, points at Kimi's difficulties with tires in qualifying as being the real problem.
The Ferrari team agrees with Massa's assessment, muttering that Bridgestone's tire choice for each circuit has erred on the side of being too hard for the conditions. And it is certainly true that tires have played a major role in the championship so far.
All this debate and theorizing does mean one thing, however: Ferrari is troubled and quite capable of losing both championships to McLaren this year. It is obvious that, regardless of the reasons, things are not running smoothly for the Scuderia and the steam roller of the Schumacher era is faltering. And that, to my mind, is good for F1.
Ferrari have been the team to beat for so long that it is hard to imagine the sport without that. The fact that McLaren seems to be developing a habit of shooting itself in the foot, too, only allows other teams to creep closer to the front and we can see the result in championships that become hard-fought to the end and almost every race turning up surprises. Long may this situation continue.
So I do not worry too much about Ferrari's problems and I am glad that McLaren have yet to seize their opportunity to be top dog. I have my opinion of what is going wrong in the two teams but I really do not care whether I am right or wrong - what matters is that the problems continue and we get a fascinating battle on track as a result. Here's a toast to the glitches and gremlins, the foul-ups and stumbles, the altered scripts and capricious weather. Let them confound our predictions forever!