I had to look it up to be certain of its meaning (I was right as it turned out); "quo vadis" is Latin and means "Where are you going?" It seemed somehow appropriate when considering the fortunes of the great Italian team. Plus, quoting a bit of Latin or Greek always gives one an edge in the classy stakes!
Kimi Raikkonen in the Ferrari F60
So what exactly is going on at Ferrari - why have they had such a poor season to date and will it continue? Autosport has an interview with Stefano Domenicali, Ferrari team manager, today and it reveals much more of what is happening within the team than Stefano intended. The key to it all is the answer to the questions regarding Luca di Montezemolo's frame of mind:
Domenicali: He is totally happy! What do you think that he would say? For sure he is not happy. This is normal for his position. I am not happy too. The only thing is that we need to make sure we do our job in the right way, and that is it.
The wry humor in Stefano's first sentence is the giveaway; in that we can see the enormous pressure from above that demands the team be successful regardless of circumstances. Luca is running out of patience and heads will roll if the team does not return to its winning ways soon. Who would be in Stefano's shoes at the moment?
I feel quite sorry for the guy; he strikes me as being an honest, likeable personality who has been dumped into a situation that was never going to be ideal. Luca's ambitions for the team required that he be right in getting rid of the Todt/Brawn/Schumacher triumvirate and it is not Domenicali's fault that he has been inadequate to so monumental a task. Whether Luca likes it or not, he made the wrong decision, opting to change a winning team for a gamble on new personnel.
What is most surprising is the length of time it has taken for the change to have an effect. The team had been built into so efficient a unit that its degeneration has taken two years and supplied last gasp championships on the way. To some extent, this gradual fading from greatness has been disguised by McLaren's problems; it helps when the main competition is also in disarray. But the signs were there in increasing unreliability of the cars, horrendous organization in the pit crews and unbelievably bad strategic decisions.
The decision to gamble on wet tires for Kimi in Sunday's Malaysian GP is merely the latest in a long list of poor choices by the team. Gambling on tire choices is for teams in trouble; teams leading the charge have no need for such dubious tactics to lift them above their natural positions. It was a desperate attempt to gain a win where no win was possible in view of the shortcomings of the car.
And Luca is responsible - it is the pressure from him that results in the team making bad decisions when things are not going well. Instead of trying to improve their position through chancy tactics, the team should be working quietly on improving the car and eliminating organizational mistakes.
An example is their persistence with KERS. Their system has been the most unreliable of all and may well have something to do with the problems experienced in making the car handle well; they need the flexibility offered by more ballast. In Sepang, Raikkonen apparently demonstrated his dislike and mistrust of KERS (understandably so, given his experience with battery fumes in practice) to the extent of qualifying with the system switched off - the team should take note and take the thing out of the cars.
But that is just one example. Engine reliability needs to be a priority too, ironically so since it seems that the tweaks to the engine in the name of reliability last year have merely served to make it break more often. The pit stop lights system needs to be abandoned in favor of a return to the lollipop man - why persevere with something that cost them two races last year and could easily do so again?
What Domenicali and the rest of the team need is to step back and take a realistic view on the matter. Forget that this is Ferrari they are working for, face the fact that their car does not have an advantage over the rest this year (although it is still a very good design) and work in a more relaxed atmosphere to solve their problems.
Unfortunately, that requires that Luca be told to keep his nose out and go sell road cars or write speeches for FOTA. That is not going to happen, of course - even Jean Todt lost the battle for complete control of the team. Our expectation must be, therefore, that the degeneration of the Ferrari team will continue and Domenicali will soon find himself replaced. The great days have gone.
Interestingly, Pitpass has an article today that recommends a similarly frank statement to the bosses of F1. Who might have the standing and power to be heard by them is another matter, of course. Funnily enough, the only possible candidate might be Luca di Montezemolo in his capacity as president of FOTA and head honcho at FIAT/Ferrari. Somehow, I suspect that even that would not be sufficient to awaken the panjandrums of F1, however.
Finally, in my present mood of saying "I told you so", I would suggest a read of an article in the Williams team's iWitness column. Three drivers were feeling rather below par over the weekend in Sepang apparently, leading iWitness to comment that they should not be so run-down this early in the season. Is it possible that my thoughts on the drivers' weight loss over the winter are being vindicated already?