Ferrari

Pedro De La Rosa may forever be referred to as the man that never quite made it. 

In a world where money can and will buy race seats, the Spaniard showed glimpses of potential at low running teams but ultimately never made that step up to a top team.

The danger at smaller teams is that unless you bulldoze your way to the front of the pack you will never be regarded as nothing more than an average driver. 

Occasionally there are exceptions. Fernando Alonso at Minardi and Sebastien Vettel at Toro Rosso showed what a talented driver in a back-running team could do. Their subsequent exploits and combined five drivers titles speak for themselves. 

De La Rosa's Formula 1 career has been a journey of stops and starts. For a period of time he shone at the now defunct Arrows team. On a couple of occasions he managed to thrust the car well into points-scoring positions only for unreliability to cost him dearly. 

You have to admire the man's dedication to the sport, especially after he spent a lengthy eight years as test driver for the McLaren team. Occasionally he was called upon to be a covering substitute. The aim in these situations was to provide damage limitation, by scoring as many points as possible before the permanent and more accomplished first-team driver returned. 

At the flailing HRT outfit De La Rosa miraculously gained a first-team drive in 2012. This acted as his very own swansong, as although he remained rooted to the back of the pack, he at least got to show supporters of the sport that he could still perform at the highest level. 

Over the course of the season the 41-year-old outperformed his HRT counterpart, Narain Karthikeyan. In every race where both drivers finished, De La Rosa finished a place or two ahead of his team mate. 

While this may not have seemed a marvellous achievement when looking at how uninspiring the Indian driver has been in the sport, when you consider De La Rosa's mature age, you can respect his efforts. 

The writing has since been on the wall for HRT. Their inability to find a buyer was the final nail in the coffin for a team who could not catch up with the rest of the pack. 

De La Rosa and Karthikeyan were subsequently left without drives for 2013. Their names were not mentioned as potentials for any of the remaining seats at teams like Force India. This would lead you to expect a permanent exit from Formula 1.

Yet De La Rosa has now been asked by Ferrari to take on a support role within their team. The Spaniard has been named as an additional development driver who will work more with the team's simulators. 

In a sport that often forgets the men behind the scenes, De La Rosa should be commended for agreeing to take on such a minor back office role. It will not be the same as stepping into the actual race car, but it is an important job that De La Rosa will have the commitment and experience to excel in. 

It would now be a miracle if he were to ever sustain a first-team drive. I would even be surprised to see him replace an injured or banned driver if the opportunity arose. 

But at least those within the sport, and in particular at Ferrari, can acknowledge and appreciate what he can bring to a team. It is for this reason that a driver who often out-performed his car but was never given that next step up, should be considered as an unsung hero of the sport. 

He is what Formula 1 should be all about; the want and desire to succeed and partake in a role that evokes passion and sustained loyalty.

The Monaco Grand Prix of 1984 is remembered for several reasons. Most people remember it for the horrendous weather and Ayrton Senna in the Toleman hunting down Alain Prost in the McLaren before the red flag fell. What is less remembered is the fact that Stefan Bellof in the Tyrrell was catching both of them. Had the race continued, chances are it would have resulted in a Bellof victory with Senna second and Prost third.

Sadly, Tyrrell was later excluded from the entire 1984 season for a technical infringement discovered at the Dallas race. Therefore, Bellof lost his third position and all the other points he gained throughout the season. Due to that, and the short amount of time Bellof was in F1, Stefan's career statistics in Formula 1 are rather underwhelming. In 20 starts he is only credited with scoring four points with no podiums or wins.

However, there is absolutely no denying Stefan Bellof's talent behind the wheel. In an Autosport survey of 217 drivers, Bellof was ranked the 35th-best driver ever in Formula 1. He was considered by some to be fearless, and that is what made him so fast on the track. To this day Bellof is the owner of the lap record at the legendary Nurburgring Nordschleife, set in 1983. This lap record earnt him pole position and he was a full five seconds faster than the next car

Bellof's 1984 Formula 1 season had seen him score five points before the Tyrrell exclusion and had seen some incredible drives in the only non-turbo car on the grid. Bellof scored points at Zolder, Imola and Monaco, but was guilty of overdriving and overstressing his machine on occasions. At Dijon, Bellof continuously short-shifted to try to keep up with the turbo cars, which resulted in a blown engine, and at Detroit he crashed out trying to over take teammate Martin Brundle, who ended up finishing in second (before the exclusion).

The Monaco Grand Prix in the rain is what he should be remembered for though.  After starting last and being the only Tyrrell representative after Brundle failed to qualify Bellof began to scythe through the field. Bellof produced an excellent daring pass to get past Rene Arnoux in the Ferrari heading in to the Mirabeau corner as well as having an excellent fight with Keke Rosberg. When the race was stopped, Bellof was in third, and had the race gone longer, he could have easily won. It's a great shame that Bellof's podium was been removed from the record books.

To go with his Formula 1 exploits, Bellof entered the World Endurance Championship and the DTM series. He won both championships, winning six World Endurance races and three DTM races. It was in his World Endurance races, though, where his performances were getting noticed. He was consistently the fastest man in his team of three drivers and often by a long shot. A certain degree of wildness remained, but he was without doubt the fastest driver there.

In 1985 he remained with Tyrrell in Formula 1, but the car was not overly competitive. However, he earned a point for sixth place at the Portuguese Grand Pix and then three more points for fourth at the Detroit Grand Prix. Ironically, at the Monaco Grand Prix in 1985, the track where he had his greatest triumph the year before, he failed to qualify but that was due to the deficiencies of the car more than the driver.

Bellof's talents had attracted interest, and he had a meeting scheduled with Enzo Ferrari to drive for Ferrari in the 1986 season. However, he never even finished the 1985 season, let alone competed in 1986, due to a tragic incident that saw the German leave us too soon.

Like the previous year, he drove in DTM where he won the only race he competed in and the World Endurance Championship. In the World Endurance races he was driving in a Brun Porsche, which was not a race-winning car, but was enjoyable for the young German to drive. However, in a manner rather similar to Robert Kubica, an enjoyable drive whilst not on F1 duty went horribly wrong.

At the 1985 Spa 1000 km sports car race, Bellof tried an insane move on Jacky Ickx heading in to Eau Rouge. Ickx turned in to the corner to take the normal racing lane, unaware Bellof was trying to pull alongside him. The front right corner of Bellof's car touched the rear right of Ickx's car, sending Ickx into a spin and fairly heavy impact into the wall. However, the touch sent Bellof's car spearing in to the wall head-on with the car going straight through the first barrier and into a secondary wall.

Bellof's car caught fire, but the damage was already done. Despite the best efforts of the medical crew and Ickx trying to extract Bellof it still took a long time. Once the car was lifted onto the back of a tow truck it became clear how severe the accident had been. The entire front of the car was piled on itself and the car was completely destroyed. Looking at the wreckage I prefer not to think of the injuries the Bellof suffered. Bellof was pronounced dead at the track hospital with horrific internal injuries.

As with the case of any driver fatality I have not put video footage or pictures of the car in this piece. It is not hard to find though for anyone who does want to see

Sadly, Bellof was responsible for his own demise for attempting such a dangerous pass. Bellof had been stuck behind Ickx for a few laps, got impatient and tried an insane move. One of his teammates in sports cars, Derek Bell, felt Bellof had still yet to mature as a driver ,which gave him his speed edge but also left him prone to making mistakes.

To me, Bellof is a great example of raw talent that, sadly, never had the chance to develop. He was Michael Schumacher's idol when the young German was growing up. In many ways, Bellof reminds me of Wolfgang Von Trips. A man who had immense talent, but was killed before he could get the accolades he deserved.

RIP Stefan Bellof

Verbal Kint told us in The Usual Suspects that “the greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” Did Ferrari manage to do the same thing in 2012?

If you ask any watcher of Formula 1 what they thought about the Ferrari F2012, there would be almost universal agreement that it was an inferior car to its Red Bull Racing and McLaren counterparts—but was it?

It certainly wasn’t a car that dominated qualifying—it appeared on the front two rows of the grid on only six out of the possible 40 occasions—but it was a car that came to life in races.

Fernando Alonso managed to secure no less that 12 podium finishes, two more than world champion Sebastian Vettel.

The car was mechanically faultless, not succumbing to a single race-ending problem throughout the year—a feat only rivalled by Ferrari powered counterpart Toro Rosso.

It was a car that delivered Alonso to the lead in the drivers’ championship for over half of the season (11 weeks) and to second overall in the year-end drivers’ standings.

It was car that claimed second in the constructors’ championship, despite the ineptitude of Felipe Massa for the first half of the season.

Put simply, it wasn’t that bad of a machine.

A lot of credit is given to Alonso for taking an underperforming car and doing extraordinary things with it.

There is no doubt that Alonso is one of the top three drivers on the current F1 grid. There’s also no doubt that he extracts the best possible performance and results from his car, but he was also made to look a little better than he actually was by the woeful performance of Massa.

Ferrari cultivated the underdog status through the frequent demands from Luca di Montezemolo for improvement—for example, his statement that he was nervous about Red Bull’s pace at the European GP when Alonso took the lead in the championship and held for the next seven races.

He beseeched his team to work to get Ferrari back to the top of the heap—despite the fact that it was already there—adding to the air of desperation and crisis.

Was it all a ruse?

Of course it was.

It’s impossible to know the individual merits of the cars compared to each other. It certainly appears to be the case that the Red Bull car was strong around the newer Tilke tracks, but the Ferrari could get off the start line and exploit a slipstream and DRS better than any other car.

McLaren’s reliability issues could have cost it second place in the championship, but Ferrari’s weak second driver could equally have cost it first place in the championship.

We’ll never know, but it’s safe to assume—with the benefit of hindsight—that the Ferrari wasn’t as bad as we were made to believe.

While Fernando Alonso remains realistic about his chances of securing his third world championship, Felipe Massa feels unconstrained by reality or logic, claiming that he wants to win the Brazilian Grand Prix to help his teammate secure the title.

While there are circumstances in which Massa could win the race and Alonso win the title—like Sebastian Vettel’s car being hit by a meteorite (or Romain Grosjean) or the dreaded Renault alternator deciding to go on its end-of-season break a few hours earlier than everyone else—the chances of Massa actually being allowed to win the race are slimmer than those of Bernie Ecclestone becoming the next Pussycat Doll.

Massa told ESPN F1:

Well first of all I'll try to win a third time. I think that's always the right direction to think about racing, you're always thinking about the victory. Here is a very special place for me and I'm going to try to win. Hopefully Fernando can finish second without any problems to win the championship.

While there’s merit to Massa’s approach, he must be delusional if he thinks that Ferrari will allow him to beat Alonso while Vettel’s Red Bull is still running.

Alonso, by contrast remains philosophical, Telling ESPN F1:

This is Formula One and this is sport so anything can happen until the chequered flag. We will try to do the best race we can and try to cross the line on the podium, which will give us more than 13 points, and then we will see where Sebastian crosses the line. If we win we will be very happy, but we know to win we will need a strange combination of results. If we don't win we will congratulate him [Vettel] and we will try next year.

It’s a healthy attitude and recognises that Vettel is the most likely championship winner for 2012.

Alonso has cleverly put all of the pressure on the German Red Bull pilot and pressure can make people do funny things.

This is uncharted territory for Vettel in F1. In 2010, all expectation was on a battle between Alonso and Mark Webber, before Vettel came from the clouds to snatch victory while the others fought amongst themselves.

In 2011, Vettel was so far ahead of the pack that he was already champion with four races still to be run.

This time, he goes into the decider defending a lead in the championship; the title is his to lose.

Already, he finds himself feeling it necessary to defend his success, telling The F1 Times that it is the combination of car and driver that has secured his titles, not the car alone.

"It is a natural thing to happen: One day you have a strong driver in a strong team so you end up with a strong combination and that is difficult to beat."

As if the innuendo wasn’t enough, for some inexplicable reason Bernie Ecclestone decided to have a kick at Vettel, claiming on Wednesday that Vettel lacks charisma according to Yalla F1.

Why he thought the best time to bring it up would be in the middle of the championship deciding week is anyone’s guess. It’s just the sort of thing that Vettel doesn’t need in his head and it’s the sort of thing that Alonso doesn’t have to contend with.

Winning car aside, Vettel will need mental toughness to win this championship. We'll see on Sunday if he has it.

Ferrari boss, Luca di Montezemolo has demanded that the team make every effort to improve for the final three races of the 2012 season.

He told ESPN F1:

Drivers and team have never been more united to give 120%, we're more united than ever, and the team is working on further improvements with the last three races in sight. We're ready to give it 120%, just like Alonso. We'll fight for the championship to the last kilometre. I'm very confident.

It’s the kind of stuff we’ve been hearing from him and the team since May, when Stefano Domenicali was demanding an improvement to the car’s downforce.

It seems that improvement is always just around the corner for Ferrari.

The use of the word "united" by di Montezemolo is very interesting, particularly in light of the post-qualifying tensions that were apparently evident in India, if reports in the Italian newspaper La Stampa are to be believed.

YallaF1.com outlines the La Stampa report that Alonso came close to losing his temper with the team after qualifying. Apparently, the fiery Spaniard took exception when Ferrari technical director Pat Fry seemed to blame the drivers for a disappointing qualifying performance.

The report has Alonso about to send out a Tweet criticising the lack of aerodynamic improvement to come out of the factory since May, before Stefano Domenicali talked him out of it.

While Alonso and the team have all denied the report, di Montezemolo gave it credibility by stating to YallaF1.com:

He is the best driver in the world, of that there can be no doubt. If he says certain things, it is only to keep everyone under pressure.

It sounds like there may have been some words after all.

And, frankly, who could blame Alonso for getting frustrated? He has been the standout performer of the year, and the fact that he is running as close as he is, given the fact he’s saddled with an uncompetitive car, is something of a miracle.

For his part, Alonso is using fighting words—quite literally. He tweeted:

If breaks the sword, fight with your hands. If they cut your hands, push the enemy with your shoulders, even with your teeth #samurai #IndiaAlo

— Fernando Alonso (@alo_oficial) October 28, 2012

It sounds like he’s taking fighting advice from Monty Python’s Black Knight.

Sebastian Vettel had better watch his kneecaps.

Felipe Massa is the luckiest driver in the Formula One paddock at the moment.

Quite aside from the miraculous survival and recovery after taking a high speed spring to the head and crashing in Budapest in 2009—an incident that almost claimed his life—Massa now seems to have escaped with his racing life.

After a dreadful couple of seasons as Fernando Alonso’s sidekick at Ferrari, Massa looked a certainty to be thrown on the driver scrapheap when his contract expired at the end of the 2012 season.

In 2011, Massa failed to finish above fifth and ended the year securing less than half of the points tally of Alonso. The trend looked set to continue as he secured points in only three of the first 10 races of the 2012 season.

It became obvious from very early in the 2012 season that Massa was testing the patience of Ferrari management. In March, after two dismal races, Massa was recalled to Maranello instead of heading home for a break.

Ferrari painted the recall as an opportunity for Massa to work with the engineers to improve the car, but the undertone was definitely one of a team unhappy with their driver. Team boss Stefano Domenicali explained it to ESPN F1:

Felipe has changed his plans and, instead of heading home to see his family in Brazil, he will be in Maranello tomorrow to work alongside the engineers to calmly analyse everything that happened in these past two races, trying to identify why he was not able to deliver what he is capable of. That's the right spirit and we are here, ready to help him.

Elsewhere, the media was rife with reports that Massa’s replacement was imminent with Jarno Trulli, Sergio Perez and Adrian Sutil being offered up as possible replacements. YallaF1.com reported polls being held in influential Italian media circles that pointed to anyone but Massa.

Since the dismal performance at the European Grand Prix, however, there has been a noticeable improvement in performance, as Massa has only failed to secure points once in the following eight races.

Remarkably, Massa secured an unlikely podium finish in Japan for the first time in 33 races and has backed that up with a solid fourth place in Korea.

The turnaround has convinced Ferrari to renew Massa for a further 12-month period partly, one suspects, because of the improvement in performance and partly because all of the good drivers had secured their drives for 2013 already.

The team displayed its obvious excitement with the following glowing statement on the Ferrari website:

Scuderia Ferrari announces that it has renewed its contract with the driver Felipe Massa to the end of the 2013 race season. The Scuderia’s driver line-up for next year is therefore made up of Fernando Alonso and the aforementioned Felipe Massa.

By giving Massa a one-year term, Ferrari have not only put him on notice that his days are numbered, but they have also added fuel to the persistent rumours that Sebastian Vettel is slated to join the Maranello outfit for the 2014 season.

Ferrari CEO Luca di Montezemolo has tried to quash the rumours with yet another statement, as reported on ESPNF1.com:

[I would] rather two drivers who race for Ferrari and not for themselves. I don't want problems and rivalries, which we didn't have between [Michael] Schumacher and [Eddie] Irvine, between Schumacher and [Rubens] Barrichello, between Alonso and Massa or Massa and Schumi or Massa and [Kimi] Raikkonen.

He’s certainly got his wish with Massa, but the Vettel rumours just won't go away. BBC Sport reports:

Ferrari will retain Felipe Massa next season in what is planned to be a stop-gap deal before the arrival of Sebastian Vettel.

As appealing as the dream-team combination of Alonso and Vettel is, Alonso actually has a say is who his teammate is and is reported to have vetoed a Lewis Hamilton move to Ferrari in the same BBC article.

Alonso has shown a preference to be a clear No. 1 driver in whichever team he's with, it's hard to see Vettel being relegated to No. 2.

There aren’t many premium drives still open in the Formula 1 paddock for a once-retired and now-unemployed seven-time world champion driver like Michael Schumacher to secure.

The vacancy at McLaren was filled suspiciously quickly, almost as if they had already assumed that Lewis Hamilton would abandon them. Not that Sergio Perez would have needed too long to accept the offer of a drive.

Red Bull have long since secured their drivers for the 2013 season. Mercedes have famously filled their one available spot. Lotus-Renault potentially have a spot but it would help to be French to get it.

That leaves Ferrari.

Felipe Massa’s contract expires at the end of the year and his lacklustre performances over the last three years must surely have the team looking for someone—anyone—to replace him.

He has achieved a small improvement in his recent results and has scored over half of his season’s points in the last three races.

But is it too little, too late?

Over the three seasons that he has raced with Fernando Alonso, he has been outgunned by his teammate, 703 points to 313. This year Alonso has almost four times as many points.

Massa is costing his team constructor’s championships at the very least.

Before his jump to McLaren, Sergio Perez was linked to Massa’s seat but was considered too inexperienced by Luca di Montezemolo, according to the Daily Mail:

To put a young guy to Ferrari with the pressure of Ferrari, you need more experience.

Alonso has his own theory, he’s quoted in Australia’s Herald-Sun as saying:

I have been working with Felipe for three years now and we have a very good relationship and if the team decides to appoint someone different for next year, then that driver has to be better than Felipe.

One of the main criteria for a good relationship with Alonso is not to challenge him too much. His quote continues:

Anyone who comes to drive here must be a driver that respects Ferrari and the tradition of this team and the fact that here, we work for the team, for the red cars as our first priority.

Who better to fit that role than Michael Schumacher?

As Ferrari’s most successful driver ever, there can be none better placed to meet Fernando’s lofty ideals and who also easily passes di Montezemolo’s experience litmus test.

Surely the Tifosi would also be overjoyed to see him return.

If rumours are to believed, Sebastian Vettel could potentially move to Ferrari in 2014, meaning that there's a one-year gap to be filled by someone. It would be the perfect contract length for Schumacher to see out his career and bow out on his own terms.

Schumacher is playing his cards close with regard to his future, but going back into retirement looks the most likely outcome.

Sauber have offered the vacant seat to Schumacher, and while the benefits to the team are obvious, it’s difficult to see what he would get out of the deal except prolonging an already unsuccessful return to F1.

A spot at Ferrari would be the fairy-tale finish to a remarkable career—the last few years notwithstanding—by returning to the scene of his greatest success.

It’s just a pity that it’ll never happen.

Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula 1 puppetmaster, has announced that he thinks the 2014 engine changes should be scrapped.

Unsurprisingly, Ecclestone’s proclamation came after meeting with Ferrari boss, Luca di Montezemolo, at the Maranello factory where the two reviewed Ferrari’s new engine development.

ESPN F1 quotes Ecclestone:

I listened to the noise of the engines in (Ferrari's headquarters at) Maranello the other day, the new engine and the old engine, and even Luca di Montezemolo said it sounded terrible and didn't like it.

Well, if Luca didn’t like it, then something must be done immediately.

The quote goes on to say:

(Todt) will get rid of it. I think Luca is also saying we should suspend it for two or three years. I think it is sensible to get rid of it and stick with what we have got. It is much cheaper than the new one. It probably could be 30% of the price.

For those not paying attention, Todt refers to Jean Todt, FIA President and former General Manager of Scuderia Ferrari.

It’s nice to have someone impartial in a position to make changes. The conspiracy theorists who believe that Ferrari have too much say in F1 will have a field day.

Of course, di Montezemolo isn’t arguing for Ferrari’s sake, he’s worried about the smaller and newer teams for whom the engine changes will be very expensive. ESPN F1 quotes him as saying,

A small team today has to project develop the car from grass, and it's not easy for us so can you imagine for a small team.

The fact that Ferrari would have no use for such an engine in their road cars is completely irrelevant.

It’s a little odd that Ecclestone and di Montezemolo are using the sound of the engines as a rationale for rejecting them.

Those of us who have been following the sport for a while will remember the scream of the V6 turbo cars during the 1980s. It’s certainly a different sound to the current V8, but not so substantially different as to stop people enjoying the sport.

And it’s still loud enough to rattle the fillings in your teeth.

Besides, only three weeks ago, YallaF1 reported that Ecclestone was impressed by the sound of the V6 according to Germany's Auto Motor und Sport.

Maybe it was a language thing.

The changes revolve around the move from the current normally aspirated 2.4 litre V8 engines to a 1.6 litre V6 turbocharged powerplant for the 2014 season.

This radical change is actually a compromise position after the teams protested the initial requirement of a four-cylinder engine, which was too small to become an integral part of the car’s chassis the way the current engines are.

Frustratingly, the rule changes—which also include a number of energy recovery systems—are part of a push to make Formula 1 more environmentally sustainable and road relevant.

The question is, why?

If they want to play that game, join the Le Mans series and compete against Peugeot and Audi.

Otherwise, leave the sport alone.