Ferrari

Ferrari technical director James Allison believes hard work has paid off after the team ended a 34-race victory drought on Sunday.

Sebastian Vettel’s win in the Malaysian Grand Prix was Ferrari’s first since Fernando Alonso took the chequered flag at the Spanish Grand Prix in May 2013.

Allison, who has previously worked for Benetton and Lotus, embarked on his second spell at Ferrari in July 2013 and, as such, Sunday’s win was the first since his return to Maranello.

The Englishman suggests a victory in the famous red of Ferrari is a feeling like no other in Formula One, while also citing hard graft for the team’s return to form.

“Everybody here won't be able to find proper words to tell you how wonderful it is,” Allison said, per ESPN. “It feels [good] to win in any colour, but there is something absolutely fantastic about this team. Every team works hard, but at Ferrari they work especially hard.” 

Just how much progress Ferrari have made will become more apparent in the coming races, but a podium finish in Australia plus Sunday’s win leaves Vettel with 40 points, just three behind leader Lewis Hamilton.

Vettel’s teammate, Kimi Raikkonen, has collected just 12 points from the opening two races, but he has won for Ferrari at the Chinese Grand Prix—the next race on the calendar—before after taking the chequered flag in 2007.

Indeed, the Shanghai International Circuit has been a good hunting ground for Ferrari since its introduction to the sport in 2004, with the Maranello outfit winning four of the 11 races staged in China.

While Pope Francis wore traditional red robes to celebrate the beginning of Holy Week in Vatican City, another red-clad Italian institution, Scuderia Ferrari, pulled off a resurrection miracle, with the team's new driver, Sebastian Vettel, winning the Malaysian Grand Prix on Sunday.

With his victory, Vettel now sits just three points behind Lewis Hamilton in the Formula One Drivers' Championship. Even better, in just his second race with Ferrari, the German erased a year's worth of bad memories for both himself and for the Italian team.

But is Malaysia just a one-race reprieve from the Mercedes dominance that began in Australia last year, or is Ferrari's victory a portent of a renewed title fight?

While it is tempting to get caught up in the storyline of Vettel returning the Scuderia to glory, it is still premature. Don't bet against Vettel winning one or more championships with Ferrari—but not this year.

At the Sepang circuit outside Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, Vettel drove a fantastic race and Ferrari made all the right strategy calls, but they still needed everything to fall into place to secure the win. 

Those fortuitous circumstances began on Lap 4, when Sauber's Marcus Ericsson made a clumsy overtaking manoeuvre on Nico Hulkenberg and beached his car in the gravel on the outside of Turn 1. In the ensuing safety car period, most cars, including the two from Mercedes, pitted for fresh tyres.

Vettel, meanwhile, stayed out and took the lead. It was a decision that seemed questionable at the time but proved inspired.

At the restart, Vettel pulled away in clean air while Hamilton was stuck in slower traffic. By the time the Mercedes reemerged in second place on Lap 10, Vettel was already 10 seconds clear.

Further back, after Vettel's team-mate, Kimi Raikkonen, suffered an early tyre puncture that dropped him to second-last place, the safety car allowed the Finn to catch the rest of the field and ultimately finish fourth. At this point, it should be noted that Sauber would probably be happy to accept a discount on their next engine bill from Ferrari as thanks for providing that timely safety car.

When Vettel made his first pit stop, on Lap 17, he put on a second set of the quicker, medium-compound tyres, as opposed to Hamilton, who was on hard tyres at the time. If the laps after the safety car did not make the difference in the race, those laps after Vettel's stop certainly did.

The German came out of the pits in third, behind Hamilton and Nico Rosberg in the other Mercedes. At the end of Lap 18, he was almost five seconds behind Rosberg and 13 seconds adrift of Hamilton. It then took Vettel fewer than three laps to catch and pass Rosberg, and he was in the process of passing Hamilton when the Brit dove into the pits for his second stop at the end of Lap 24.

Lap	Lewis Hamilton	Nico Rosberg	Sebastian Vettel
19	1m 47.028s	1m 46.379s	1m 44.452s
20	1m 46.761s	1m 46.568s	1m 44.896s
21	1m 46.854s	1m 47.110s	1m 45.706s
22	1m 46.793s	1m 47.078s	1m 44.725s
23	1m 47.498s	1m 47.295s	1m 44.983s

Vettel never trailed again, apart from a brief exchange when he made his final pit stop one lap before Hamilton made his.

Ferrari also benefitted from Mercedes' higher-than-expected tyre degradation. "These are not our conditions—this extremely high tarmac and ambient temperature," admitted Mercedes executive director Toto Wolff to the official F1 site after the race. He continued:

Probably we were a bit too aggressive on set-ups that pushed us into the direction of three stops—all the algorithms showed that this was the right way to go. But we got stuck in traffic and damaged the tyres following cars, and there you have it.

But that tyre degradation is not something Ferrari will be able to count on going forward. Most races will be much cooler than Malaysia.

Still, even if he needed help from the heat, the safety car, tyre degradation and traffic, Vettel still beat two healthy Mercedes cars—something no one could do in 2014. This represents a huge leap forward for Ferrari under the leadership of their new team principal, Maurizio Arrivabene.

After the Australian Grand Prix, I wrote that Ferrari's pace indicated they would be Mercedes' closest challengers this season. No one, though, expected that they would catch the Silver Arrows so soon.

Arrivabene looked nervous whenever the cameras caught him on the pit wall during the race, and the release of that nervous energy was apparent when he channeled Italy international footballer Gianluigi Buffon while singing the Italian anthem during the podium ceremony.

Worth supporting Italy just so we can watch Gianluigi Buffon belt out the anthem again #ITA v #URU shot less so farhttp://t.co/vs2RgirbrB

— B/R Football (@brfootball) June 24, 2014

"Now we’ve got to be realistic, keep our feet on the ground and our concentration at a high level, because Mercedes is still a formidable contender," said Arrivabene, per the Ferrari website.

Indeed, on raw pace, Mercedes were ahead all weekend. One of the Silver Arrows topped the time sheets in each free practice session, and Hamilton took pole position in qualifying. Even in the race, when the Mercs were not struggling with tyres or traffic, both Rosberg and Hamilton clocked laps significantly quicker than anything Vettel could manage.

Perhaps Ferrari will continue to surprise everyone and provide a sustained challenge to Mercedes. More likely, though, they are still a year away from a title run.

Ferrari technical director James Allison seems to agree: "I'm fairly sure that we will have our work cut out in China to do anything like as impressive a job as we have done here," per ESPN F1's Laurence Edmondson.

Either way, the Malaysian Grand Prix produced a full-throated retort to those who said F1 was too boring after Mercedes' win in Melbourne. Just like some football matches end 5-0, not every grand prix can be won on the final lap.

But sometimes, when everything falls into place, F1 offers up a bit of the magic that keeps its fans coming back for more.

All timing statistics in this article are taken from the FIA's official data.

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Kimi Raikkonen is not yet satisfied with the pace of his Ferrari, despite running second-fastest in the first two practice sessions ahead of the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The Finn lapped within four tenths of a second of Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes in Practice Two on Friday, outpacing the reigning world champion’s team-mate Nico Rosberg.

Practice Two Timesheet

	Driver	Team	Time
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:39.790
2	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:40.163
3	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:40.218

Nonetheless, 2007 world champion Raikkonen remains unsatisfied with the performance of his SF15-T and has urged his mechanics to continue modifying it ahead of qualifying and Sunday’s race.

“The car is still not perfect,” said Raikkonen, per ESPN's Laurence Edmonson.  “We have more to do and I think we have to still improve because we are struggling a bit.

“We have to improve for tomorrow [Saturday] on the set-up to make it a bit easier, and we will try to do the best we can.”

Raikkonen’s team-mate Sebastian Vettel registered only the seventh-fastest lap in P2, but, timed at 1:40.652, it was within one second of Hamilton’s pace.

Vettel’s best effort in qualifying in Australia was over 1.4 seconds slower than the pole position time set by Hamilton, suggesting Ferrari are closing the gap on Mercedes.

Lewis Hamilton 'surprised' by Ferrari pace but expects to improve http://t.co/l5QdMr4kSb #SkyF1 pic.twitter.com/Zd0t5mn0bI

— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) March 27, 2015

However, it remains unconfirmed what fuel loads Ferrari and Mercedes were running with during practice.

Due to the heat in Sepang—where temperatures are expected to exceed 30 degrees on race day, per weather.com —tyre preservation is high on the agenda for every team this weekend.

Track temperatures reached double that in Friday’s practice runs, according to Rosberg, who has hinted hard tyre compounds will be utilised most during the race, with tyre suppliers Pirelli predicting three-stop strategies to dominate proceedings.

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Sebastian Vettel scored a third-place finish in his Ferrari debut at the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday, confirming the Italian team's strong preseason showing.

The Melbourne race, which kicked off the 2015 Formula One season, might also have confirmed a changing of the guard at the front end of the grid. Last year, after four straight championship seasons, Red Bull were Mercedes' closest challengers, winning three races and finishing second in the constructors' standings.

But now, as the Bulls continue to struggle with unreliable and under-powered Renault engines, Ferrari have made a huge leap forward. Along with Williams, Ferrari are set to replace Red Bull as the team to push Mercedes.

A disappointing 2014 for Ferrari—two podiums, no victories and fourth in the constructors' championship—tempered expectations at the team's Maranello factory. Meanwhile, the Scuderia also undertook a culling of their personnel, starting with bringing in a new team principal in Maurizio Arrivabene and a new No. 1 driver in Vettel.

After just one race, the results look very positive. Not only did Vettel finish third, but his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen looked set for a fourth- or fifth-place finish before a problem attaching one of his wheels at a pit stop ended his race. In 2014, the Finn had one top-five finish all season.

Arrivabene is already thinking bigger, saying, per the Ferrari website:

I’m only half happy today, because the real joy comes when you win. I am happy about the podium and for Seb, but above all I am pleased for the team, because this is a good starting point, although it’s definitely not the end of the road. ... But now we have realised we can do well, we must begin to stop thinking about being 'second best' and start aiming higher.

At the same time, Mercedes' advantage cannot be underestimated. At the 2014 Australian Grand Prix, Nico Rosberg won the race by 26.777 seconds from McLaren's Kevin Magnussen (after Daniel Ricciardo was disqualified). On Sunday, Rosberg was second to Lewis Hamilton but more than 30 seconds ahead of Vettel.

"They had a huge advantage last year and I think they did a good job in increasing that advantage for this year," Vettel noted in the post-race press conference. "It will be difficult but not impossible for us and the rest to catch up."

Mercedes' biggest advantage in 2014 came from their dominant power unit, and that is the area where Ferrari may have taken their biggest step.

In addition to the factory team's successful performance, their engine customer, Sauber, scored more points in Australia than at any race since the 2012 Japanese Grand Prix.

Meanwhile, Red Bull and their Renault engines are moving in the opposite direction. Daniel Ricciardo finished sixth, stuck behind Sauber's Felipe Nasr for most of the race, while Daniil Kvyat did not even start the race due to a gearbox problem.

"I mean Sauber, all respect to them, but I doubt they’ve found that much on their chassis between last year and this year because most of it’s the same," Red Bull team principal Christian Horner complained, per Sky Sports' Mike Wise and James Galloway.

"It’s frustrating that we’re effectively even further back than we were in Abu Dhabi in both power and driveability.

"Ferrari have made a good step. Renault, at this stage, appear to have made a retrograde step."

When Mercedes faltered in 2014, Red Bull were ready to pounce and Ricciardo collected three opportunistic race wins. Ferrari (and Williams—Felipe Massa finished a close fourth to Vettel in Melbourne) will be in that position this year.

Arrivabene's predecessor as Ferrari team principal, Marco Mattiacci, told Sky Sports' Martin Brundle last year that the team was working on a three-year plan to return to the top of F1.

It is only one race, but, based on the results of the Australian Grand Prix, the plan appears to be well on its way.

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Fernando Alonso woke up after a terrifying crash in pre-season testing thinking it was 1995 and that he was his 13-year-old self with aspirations of racing in Formula One.

The Spaniard suffered a major concussion, which means he will now miss the season-opening Australian Grand Prix at the end of next week. 

But the scale of the impact is only just becoming clear, according to reports from El Pais, via the Daily Mirror:

Spanish daily El Pais has reported that while in a Barcelona hospital after the crash, the Asturias-born driver was asked who he was, what he did for a living and what he wanted to be in the future.

The two-time world champ reportedly replied: "I'm Fernando, I drive go karts and I want to be a Formula 1 driver."

Alonso is a two-time world champion and widely heralded as the era's most skilled driver. While there are no reported concerns about him making a full recovery from the crash, he has been given medical advice to avoid the first race.

It will be tough not to be in Australia, but I understand the recommendations. A second impact in less than 21 days "NO" #countdownMalaysia

— Fernando Alonso (@alo_oficial) March 3, 2015

McLaren, the team Alonso joined in the winter, have struggled in testing as they adjust to new Honda engines.

[Daily Mirror]

Ferrari are trying to temper expectations after a season of change and a successful first test for their new car.

The change began last April, when team principal Stefano Domenicali surprisingly stepped down, and culminated with Sebastian Vettel's arrival in Maranello and the replacement of Domenicali's replacement, Marco Mattiacci, with Maurizio Arrivabene.

Last week at the Jerez test, a Ferrari put in the fastest time on three of the four days. Predictably, this led to articles wondering whether Ferrari can catch Mercedes. Jerome Pugmire of The Associated Press even called Ferrari "an early front-runner to challenge for this year's Formula One championship."

But Ferrari are not competing with Mercedes—not directly, anyway. Not this year.

After winning 16 of 19 races in 2014, Mercedes are gunning for another world championship. Ferrari, meanwhile, have set a more modest goal for 2015.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BItm4QLGKzY

In a video interview for the launch of Ferrari's new car, the SF15-T, Arrivabene said, "I don't want to say that we are going to win the world championship but for sure we are committed at least to win two races."

Ferrari's last grand prix victory came nearly two years ago, in May of 2013, so it is easy to see why their fans are getting restless. And with the arrival of the four-time world champion Vettel, there is an obvious tendency to recall Michael Schumacher's arrival in 1996 and the glory years that followed.

But Schumacher's success with Ferrari was not instantaneous. The team did not win their first constructors' championship of the Schumacher era until 1999, his fourth season, and Schumacher's first drivers' title followed the year after.

Vettel likely faces a similar period of rebuilding before Ferrari can expect to challenge for championships again. If fans are looking through the prism of the Schumacher years to form their expectations for 2015, therefore, they will be disappointed.

The benchmark for Ferrari this season is not Ferrari in 2000, nor is it Mercedes in 2014. Their benchmark is Ferrari in 2014. Two victories would be a significant improvement over last year's form and a signal that all the moves over the last year have finally pointed the team in the right direction.

Vettel is only 27 years old, perhaps just approaching the peak years of his career. Better yet, he is hungry to prove his critics—who said he only won at Red Bull because he had the best car—wrong.

Before he was replaced by Arrivabene, Mattiacci told Sky Sports' Martin Brundle, "Now we are basically setting up a strategy that is going to be for the next three years and that is probably for sure going to see Ferrari go back to the top in Formula One and succeed."

It will take time, but Ferrari will return to the top. The team has too much money and has too many advantages over the other teams in the sport to stay down forever.

The problem is, Ferrari could significantly improve this season and still have almost nothing to show for it. That is how far ahead Mercedes are.

Anyone expecting Ferrari to compete with Mercedes this year is setting themselves up for disappointment. They may be on the same track, but they are not in the same race.

For now, the tifosi—Ferrari's devoted fans—will have to be content with hope and potential, rather than actual results.

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Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen are two of the superstars of the last decade of Formula One. They have combined for 59 grand prix victories since 2003 and between them have won five of the last eight drivers' championships.

Now, they are team-mates at Ferrari.

Video: Watch the lap of #Sebastian at Fiorano on the F2012! http://t.co/ZhrV8vKhPd #ForzaFerrari http://t.co/ny7eyh1nZZ

— Scuderia Ferrari HP (@ScuderiaFerrari) December 2, 2014

One year ago, Ferrari looked to have the best driver line-up on the grid, partnering Raikkonen with another former world champ, Fernando Alonso. They promptly produced the Scuderia's worst season since the dark years of the early 1990s before Michael Schumacher arrived in Maranello.

Of course, the blame does not fall only (or even mostly) on the drivers' shoulders. Ferrari's engine was underpowered compared to the Mercedes power unit, and Raikkonen, in particular, was never comfortable in the car.

Even Alonso, who for years coaxed the maximum performance out of subpar Ferraris, could only manage two podium finishes. Still, had Raikkonen been able to match Alonso's points total, the team would have finished third in the constructors' championship ahead of Williams. Instead, they were closer to McLaren in fifth.

Now, Alonso is off to McLaren, replaced by Vettel, who also struggled in 2014. After four straight championships, he was soundly beaten by team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.

And so, here we are. Ferrari have two very good drivers coming off down years. They are also friends.

"The guy I have most to do with outside of racing is Vettel," Raikkonen told CNN's Sarah Holt and Amanda Davies. "The rest I don't really see as friends—I race against them."

What could go wrong?

But Raikkonen and Vettel won't be fighting for the title this year—Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne recently admitted the new car is behind schedule, per ESPN F1—so their friendship will not undergo the same strain Hamilton and Rosberg's did last year.

It will be interesting to see whether Ferrari gives preference to one driver over the other, though. Vettel is clearly the team's future, being eight years younger than Raikkonen, who is nearing the end of his career.

During the Schumacher glory years, Rubens Barrichello was the clear No. 2 behind the German champion. Even during the less glorious Alonso years, the Spaniard was given preferential treatment over Felipe Massa—remember the "Fernando is faster than you" incident?

The difference in the current situation is Raikkonen. He is so laid-back that it probably does not matter to him whether he is the first, second or 15th driver on his team. He just wants to drive fast and have fun. And he believes he can do that with Vettel as a team-mate.

"We try to beat each other all the time, but we can have fun and get things done in a good way," Raikkonen said, per Autosport's Jonathan Noble, after Vettel was announced as his new team-mate.

Sebastian #Vettel in Maranello http://t.co/HTVqYZ1oGn pic.twitter.com/hKOl6zgVMi

— Scuderia Ferrari HP (@ScuderiaFerrari) January 15, 2015

Both men will also have to overcome their struggles with the new technical regulations introduced for 2014, which meant less aerodynamic downforce, more torque from the new engines and a new brake-by-wire system.

One of the biggest problems for Raikkonen was the lack of front-end grip on the Ferrari F14 T, as ESPN F1's Laurence Edmondson explained.

Vettel, conversely, was thought to be struggling with the reduction in rear grip on his Red Bull, given the ban on blown rear diffusers. However, Vettel said his problems were more complicated than just that one issue, according to the BBC's James Galloway.

Now, one must wonder whether the benefit of an extra year working with the Ferrari engineers and designers will give Raikkonen an advantage on the track. The team knows what he wants out of the car and were working to provide it for him last year. Vettel was comparatively late to the party and will not have had nearly as much input into the design of the 2015 car.

#ForzaFerrari #Kimi7 Raikkonen: “Working together in the same direction” http://t.co/UzDF1fD51E pic.twitter.com/K57hICoMWu

— Scuderia Ferrari HP (@ScuderiaFerrari) December 6, 2014

But Vettel is a long-term project for Ferrari. For now, it is enough that he has energized their fanbase and brought new hope to the team.

After a large-scale culling of the team at the end of last year, 2015 will be a rebuilding season for the Scuderia. Victories are not expected.

They will be in the near future, though. And in the meantime, we can enjoy what should be an entertaining duel between two world champions—although we thought that about Raikkonen and Alonso last year too.

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It’s all change at Ferrari before the start of the 2015 Formula 1 season, as a number of key personnel have been shown the door in the wake of one of the biggest driver changes in recent memory.

After seasons of underwhelming machinery, Ferrari’s overhaul means they are very serious about returning to the top of Formula 1 in the quickest manner possible.

The 2014 season had not been kind to the Scuderia. With new regulations to exploit, the team produced an underwhelming car with a weak engine, possibly the weakest of the three engines used in 2014.

Fernando Alonso dragged as much as he could out of the car, scoring two podiums, while Kimi Raikkonen struggled with the new regulations and a lack of front end grip. A best result of second means this is the first season since 1993 where Ferrari have failed to secure a win, which is just unacceptable.

Change is needed, and change is what they are getting.

It all started back in October, in the build-up to the Japanese Grand Prix, when then-reigning four-time Formula 1 World Champion Sebastian Vettel announced that he was leaving the cocoon of Red Bull in search of a new challenge, which was to be Ferrari.

With Raikkonen already confirmed for 2015, Fernando Alonso looked set to depart Ferrari after five seasons, 11 race wins, and three runners-up spots in the drivers' championship. Crucially, though, there was no championship year.

Signing the man who beat him on a consistent basis is a statement of intent from Ferrari. The love between the two had died, but of the current crop of drivers, only Vettel matches him in terms of success and clearly has the knowledge to help develop world championship winning cars.

More recently, Esteban Gutierrez joined the team as a test and development driver. It was the move that the 23-year-old Mexican has been seeking since it became apparent he had no race seat at Sauber for 2015.

Another new face, team principal Maurizio Arrivabene, seemed happy with the move, per EstebanRacing.com:

“We are pleased to be able to offer this opportunity to Esteban who, although young, has plenty of experience relating to the new generation of Formula 1 cars. I am sure that, with his experience, he will make an important contribution to the development work of the team in the simulator.”

Not only do the team now have sponsorship opportunities in Mexico, but they also have a development driver with racing experience of the new regulations, which could lead to more consistent developmental progress across 2015.

Ferrari announced on their website on Friday that they have also signed Jean-Eric Vergne to replace Pedro de la Rosa in a test driver role. The Frenchman had been frozen out of Formula 1 after leaving Toro Rosso, but their loss is Ferrari’s gain, as Vergne has proven himself to be an excellent driver who is very sensitive to the car.

Arguably, then, the situation driver-wise is looking bright for 2015, brighter than it has been for some time.

Big changes have occurred all over the team though. This year, Luca di Montezemolo stepped down as president of Ferrari and was replaced by Fiat-Chrysler president Sergio Marchionne, and two team principals have also been shown the door; first Stefano Domenicali, who was sacked following a poor start to the season, then Marco Mattiacci, who was sacked for reasons not yet clear.

In more technical roles, the engineering director Pat Fry, chief designer Nikolas Tombazis, engine chief Luca Marmorini and tyre chief Hirohide Hamashima have all been dismissed within the last month, which suggests that Ferrari are pinning their struggles with engines and tyres on the staff at the top of the chain.

From 2016, Lewis Hamilton’s race engineer Jock Clear will be taking over Pat Fry’s role, unless they can negotiate his one year notice period, via BBC. He has championship-winning pedigree, also serving as Jacques Villeneuve’s race engineer in 1997.

Until he arrives, James Allison will have an increased role in trackside operations, one which he richly deserves given his success with Lotus in 2012 and 2013. He too has winning in his blood, being part of the Ferrari and Renault design teams that dominated the early and mid 2000s.

Overall, that is a lot of senior personnel to change at one time. Even if the replacements are of the highest quality, they are going to have to jell pretty quickly. Given that car development is likely to be at an advanced stage already, their impact likely won’t be felt as hard at the start of the season as it will towards the Spanish Grand Prix—the fifth race of the 2015 calendar. 

A lot will depend on who they bring in as their tyre chief. It’s an area Ferrari have really struggled in since Bridgestone exited the sport, so it will need to be someone closely linked to Pirelli for it to be an upgrade on Hamashima.

The decision to replace Tombazis with his deputy Simone Resta is also a confusing one. Resta was part of the team that designed such a poor car and is surely unlikely to bring in the new way of thinking that a fresh, external appointment would.

2015 will be a testing year for the Maranello-based team. Allison will finally get to have serious influence on a Ferrari in his first full year of development. They will need a chassis on an aerodynamic par with Red Bull if they are to compete for regular podiums. Unfortunately, engine development is crucial, and it could take another year before they are ready to challenge Mercedes, given how much developing they need to do to catch up.

Ben Anderson and Edd Straw of Autosport believe that if things click the way Ferrari want them to, they can still have a solid year:

“If Allison is able to do things the way he wants on the technical side, and new signing Sebastian Vettel settles in and starts delivering the kinds of performances he did pre-2014, the future will start to look much brighter.”

The team of proven winners they are developing in and out of the car is certainly enviable and impressive. We will know for certain if the changes have made a significant difference come testing season next year.

For the good of Formula 1, the horse must start prancing again soon.