Ferrari

Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari.

It's an alliance that seems so wrong, but feels so right.

Vettel has been the thorn in the red team's side since his rise to prominence in 2010. In two of his four World Championship-winning campaigns thus far, he has snatched the title from Ferrari's grasp at the very last race of the season.

Vettel is a source of irritation for all those who swear by the Prancing Horse.

Every single wave of his celebratory index finger acts as a reminder to Ferrari of what they once were in the spell of Michael Schumacher's dominance—and what they should have become under the stewardship of Fernando Alonso.

Yet the romance of the most successful driver of his generation joining Formula One's most iconic establishment is—despite Vettel being Ferrari's only true barrier to success in recent years—difficult to ignore.

That notion has led to a flurry of media reports linking Vettel with a move to Maranello, Italy, in previous seasons, with Andrew Benson of BBC Sport claiming in October 2012 that an agreement was in place for the German to join Ferrari for 2014—which clearly has been proven wide off the mark.

With that window of opportunity now firmly shut, the attention has now turned to the beginning of the 2016 season, when Vettel's current contract with Red Bull expires.

Even Mark Webber, Vettel's teammate between 2009 and 2013, has been quoted by Sky Sports as suggesting that Ferrari will take advantage of the German's status as a free agent to signal the start of a fresh, new era in 2016.

So what are the chances of Vettel wearing red overalls in the near future?

Well, if it is to happen, it is entirely plausible that a deal might already be in place. Ferrari, after all, have made a habit of negotiating high-profile contracts well in advance of their start date.

Kimi Raikkonen's transfer from McLaren to the Scuderia for 2007 was signed, sealed and delivered by the end of the 2005 season, as BBC Sport's Andrew Benson attests. Fernando Alonso, meanwhile, had an agreement to join Ferrari for 2010 at the end of 2008, according to James Allen, the respected F1 journalist.   

And Robert Kubica, the former BMW and Renault driver, simply laughed—without a hint of denial—when questioned directly by Ted Kravitz in a Sky Sports television interview in 2013 whether Ferrari had an option to sign him.

An agreement between the two parties would have come into effect in either 2012 or 2013 had the Pole not suffered life-threatening injuries in a rally crash at the beginning of 2011.

Interestingly, the rumours linking Vettel with Ferrari have been as frequent and robust as the speculation surrounding Raikkonen and Alonso, prior to their arrivals in 2007 and 2010 respectively, and Kubica's non-arrival.

The speculation has never shown the slightest sign of going away, despite Vettel extending his contract with Red Bull last year—implying that something really is going on behind the scenes.

The claim of Luca di Montezemolo, the Ferrari president—as reported by Andrew Benson of BBC Sport in February 2013—that the team would never employ Vettel and Alonso as teammates is understandable, given their occasionally volatile temperaments and eagerness for preferential treatment.

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

Vettel himself suggested there would be a clash of personalities if he were to be a stablemate of Alonso when he was quizzed by BBC Sport's Lee McKenzie following last summer's Hungarian Grand Prix, when it appeared the Spaniard interested in a move to Red Bull.

And if Vettel wouldn't entertain the thought of partnering Alonso, but would like to drive for Ferrari in the future, the key to any deal is at which point Alonso—who is contracted until the end of 2016—leaves the Scuderia.

It is clear that Alonso is plotting an escape route from Ferrari after growing bored of their continuous underachievement, which could accelerate the process of Vettel arriving at the Prancing Horse.

Although Alonso's exit may be delayed with the driver market set to remain relatively static between 2014 and 2015 (unless, of course, the Spaniard swallows his pride and returns to the McLaren team whom he departed after one acrimonious season in 2007), it won't be until the end of 2015 that the path to another team will be clear for Alonso.

And with Vettel's Red Bull contract ending at that time, it doesn't take a genius to pinpoint the beginning of 2016 as the moment for the German to make the move.

But consider this: If a driver of the calibre of Fernando Alonso would feel the need to jump from Ferrari's sinking ship, why would Sebastian Vettel happily walk on to it?

It is true that Vettel has a deeper understanding of the heritage and the history of F1 than any other driver on the current grid. He is more than an average driver, your average world champion; he is a philosopher, the fan who grew up to become the centre of the fanfare.

With that in mind, the opportunity to join Ferrari, F1's most mysterious, sacred team, would be so much more than a career move—it would be a privilege, an experience.

The prospect of emulating Michael Schumacher, his compatriot and childhood inspiration, in making the Ferrari team his own is also a factor that is likely to entice Vettel.

However, Ferrari—having failed to win a drivers' or constructors' world championship since 2008—are not the same team whom Schumacher led to the last of his seven world titles a decade ago.

They are stuck in a rut and without a grand prix win in over a year—a factor which sparked a recent period of transition, with team principal Stefano Domenicali, a man who was frequently pictured in discussion with Vettel, replaced by the inexperienced Marco Mattiacci.

Ferrari's recent, failed move for Red Bull's chief technical officer, Adrian Newey—as reported by Paul Weaver of The Guardian—could be interpreted as an effort to compensate for the loss of Domenicali with a face familiar to Vettel, in addition to the prime motive of producing a leading car.

It seemed like a frantic move to declutter and freshen the place up ahead of the expected arrival of someone accustomed to a more exotic environment.

Newey's haste in committing his future to Red Bull, though, sent a sharp message to Vettel.

The German's obsession with breaking Formula One's records, which range from becoming the youngest four-time world champion to risking the reliability of his car by setting new fastest laps in the latter stages of grand prix, is clear to see.

Under the guidance of Newey and Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, Vettel has over the last four years been on a relentless pursuit to reinforce his superiority over his peers, plunging his name deeper into the history of F1.

And he will not allow anyone—not even Ferrari—to obstruct his path to greatness.

Days after Adrian Newey confirmed he will not be joining Ferrari in the "foreseeable future," the Italian squad's current technical director, James Allison, took a public swipe at the way the team has been run in recent years.

Ferrari have been in the doldrums since 2009. Not once since then have they built a car truly capable of challenging for the championship on raw pace, and only the brilliance of Fernando Alonso has seen them come close.

Now Allison, who joined from Lotus last year, believes he has identified the main problem—too much pressure and too many targets are stifling the creativity of the team's employees. Per BBC Sport, he said:

There is a wealth of talent at Ferrari, the experience and quality of the people on the technical side is a match for any team. It is a question of giving them the encouragement to actually go off and do more unusual things and then have the time to look at them and know that if they fail it's OK because there's still time to put a back-up plan in place and for that to work.

Creativity and originality will only come if you set out to allow the engineers in your organisation the space and the time to do that.

If you force them to operate with their back against the wall, up against deadlines that are very tight, then there is no time for them to think about how they might approach something differently.

His comments show a dissatisfaction with the way the team is currently run, and they are all the more interesting because he put them out into the public domain.

And he's right—Ferrari need to change.

The traditional Formula One management structure has been around for decades, and sees a single team principal in overall charge. Sauber, Red Bull, Marussia and Lotus are among the teams set up this way. At Williams, founder Sir Frank Williams shares the duty with his daughter, Claire.

But some teams have eschewed this model. McLaren sacked team principal Martin Whitmarsh in January 2014, and appear to have removed the position as well. Whitmarsh's replacement, Eric Boullier, has the job title Racing Director, which has different responsibilities.

And Mercedes have gone one step further.

They have separate leaders for the two major "halves" of the team. Paddy Lowe is Executive Director (Technical) and Toto Wolff is Executive Director (Business).

Some crossover between the two roles exists, but by and large each man deals with his own side—the side with which he is most familiar. Instead of a jack of all trades, Mercedes have two masters of one.

This approach helps the commercial side because a dedicated, experienced business mind can be installed to deal with things like sponsorship, contracts, pay and inter-team relations.

But the creative and engineering side is also helped. Lowe understands how his staff think and work, so can set targets and create working conditions that play to their strengths.

He is also dedicated to that area. Sponsorship, corporate guests and employee contracts are someone else's problem. While Wolff does the business and presents a public face, Lowe and his team can get on with doing what they do best—making the W05 quick.

The setup at Ferrari is currently the traditional model. Team Principal Marco Mattiacci is at the top, and below him are Technical Director Allison and Engineering Director Pat Fry.

But it's not quite that simple. Hovering above the entire F1 operation is Luca di Montezemolo. Under pressure from his own bosses at Fiat (who own Ferrari), the Ferrari chairman is becoming increasingly involved in the running of the team.

Following the appointment of Mattiacci (who had no prior experience working in F1) in April, Montezemolo told Gazzetta dello Sport (h/t gpupdate.com for the translation from Italian):

I will assist him. I am going to do what I use to and will stay closer to F1. I will spend more time on it. I am not happy at the moment. I am putting myself on the line, but Mattiacci—our number one in the USA, is the right choice. I chose him in full agreement with [Fiat CEO] Sergio Marchionne. He will do a good job. I'm confident. We will win very soon.

Montezemolo is a very powerful and influential figure at Ferrari, and he has genuine passion and love for the team. If anyone is capable of putting pressure on staff in an attempt to get results, it's him.

But isn't excessive management involvement and pressure from above—at least, according to Allison—what got Ferrari into this situation to begin with?

Perhaps Ferrari could do a little bit of restructuring, and solve a number of problems in one fell swoop.

Marco Mattiacci is something of a golden boy among the higher management at Fiat. He joined the company in 1999 and enjoyed a rapid rise through the ranks on the road car side. Before taking over the F1 team, he was CEO of Ferrari North America.

He has a proven track record of business success, but extremely limited knowledge of the way an F1 team, and especially the technical side, is run.

James Allison is widely considered to be one of the top technical men in F1 today. He started his F1 career in 1991 and has held senior positions at Benetton, Renault, Lotus and now Ferrari.

His proven track record is in car design and the technical side of things, but he has never been deeply involved in the business side.

Individually, Mattiacci and Allison lack the necessary skills and expertise to be stand-alone leaders of the team. But together, they would make a formidable management team for Ferrari.

Mattiacci would not need a crash course in everything to perform a role similar to that of Toto Wolff at Mercedes. Business skills are transferable, and dealing with clients and suppliers in a somewhat treacherous atmosphere is something he has been doing for years.

On the other side, Allison has more than enough experience—and it seems from his comments, desire—to be the ultimate head of the technical side of the team, like Paddy Lowe at Mercedes.

If his assessment of where Ferrari have gone wrong is true (and it probably is), he is the ideal man to make the necessary changes to the working conditions.

And Montezemolo? Maybe he is too powerful, too political and too much a god-like figure for a more modern, progressive Ferrari. 

Allison could provide whatever guidance Mattiacci may need.

Which leads us, in a roundabout sort of way, to Adrian Newey.

The Red Bull Chief Technical Officer is not a political animal. He works best when left to his own devices, without constant observation, interference and micromanagement from superiors.

He gets none of this at Red Bull, which is why he is still there. They bend over backwards to ensure he is happy and has a working environment which encourages him to do his best work. The current Ferrari setup looks totally wrong for him.

But what about a Ferrari team with less in the way of politics, fewer managers peering over his shoulder and a boss—Allison—who subscribes to the view that creative staff should be left to their own devices?

There's the matter of whether he and Allison could work together in the same team, but that's a bridge which can only be crossed once it's reached.

The Scuderia can offer Newey whatever financial deal they want, but he is already paid extremely well at Red Bull and has enough money to last several lifetimes. Conditions and challenge are the most important factors.

If Ferrari can change, maybe he'll join.

If they can't, there's more chance of him going to Marussia.

When Kimi Raikkonen was signed by Ferrari in September 2013, it was widely assumed that the Finnish driver would provide Fernando Alonso with a much needed kick up the backside.

There was a feeling last summer that Alonso had grown far too comfortable within the Prancing Horse, to the point where the two-time world champion felt in control of the team, rather than the team being in control of their own employee.

In response to Alonso's increasingly unhealthy grip on Ferrari, the outfit's president, Luca di Montezemolo—barely a month after rebuking the Spaniard via the team's official website—completed the signing of Raikkonen.

Raikkonen had excelled for Lotus, the underdogs of the grid, since returning to Formula One in 2012 after a two-year flirtation with the World Rally Championship.

In 37 grands prix in a black and gold car, the 2007 world champion recorded two victories and 15 podium finishes, breaking Michael Schumacher's long-standing record for the most consecutive points finishes in the process.

The reasons for Ferrari's re-signing of Raikkonen only four years after cancelling his contract to create an Alonso-sized space in their driver line-up, however, extended far beyond his rapid re-adjustment to F1, his impressive turn of speed and his remarkable levels of consistency.

His apolitical, candid personality would make him immune to the mind games which Alonso would doubtlessly thrust upon him in the heat of battle.

Whilst Alonso would attempt to gain a psychological advantage by issuing statements to the press, Raikkonen would sleep soundly at the back of the garage before waking up, jumping in the car and posting a faster lap time.

Talk about doing your talking on the track.

It was a compelling theory, but one that has so far failed to translate into reality.

Ferrari's failure to take advantage of the 2014 regulation changes and produce a race-winning car has blunted the excitement surrounding the presence of two world champions—two of the finest drivers of their generation in the same team.

And the struggles of the Prancing Horse have rather understandably had a greater effect on the performances of Raikkonen—who surely found the F14 T something of a culture shock after two years of sitting in an incredibly drivable and responsive Lotus. 

The statistics of the season so far, as a consequence, reflect poorly on the Finn.

In the six grand prix weekends in 2014, Raikkonen has out-qualified Alonso on only two occasions, starting outside the top 10 twice.

He has failed to beat the Spaniard in a race thus far, with a highest finishing position of seventh (achieved in Australia and Spain) compared to Alonso's solitary podium finish in China.

And while Raikkonen has finished in 12th on two occasions, Alonso's lowest finishing position so far is ninth in Bahrain—the race in which Ferrari's fundamental lack of straight line pace had its greatest effect.

The difference in performances and results between Alonso and Raikkonen has cast doubt over the latter's true greatness.

The loser of Ferrari's inter-team grudge match was always bound to see their place in the history of Formula One, and the credibility of their career's achievements, go under review. However, it would be unfair to lump Raikkonen with Giancarlo Fisichella, Nelson Piquet Jr and Felipe Massa in the list of Alonso doormats just yet.

It is often said that the most successful and talented athletes make their own luck, or simply don't need it.

But Raikkonen, one of the current grid's five world champions, is currently crying out for divine intervention.

The Finn has encountered several technical problems already this season, losing valuable track time in free practice sessions in Australia, Bahrain, China and Monaco while early collisions with the McLaren of Kevin Magnussen dented his hopes in Malaysia and Bahrain.

After setting only four laps in the second practice session ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix, it seemed like a case of the same old story for Raikkonen—but his impressive performance over the remainder of the weekend suggests a corner may finally have been turned.

Despite qualifying seven tenths behind Alonso, Raikkonen displayed the opportunism and quick thinking which defined his Lotus career by sneaking ahead of his teammate and Daniel Ricciardo into St Devote, before being elevated to third after Sebastian Vettel encountered reliability issues of his own. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEZyjG-3ezk

The 34-year-old then found himself pulling away from Ricciardo—who had arguably looked more comfortable than any other driver over the entire Monte Carlo weekend.

Raikkonen was potentially on course for his first podium finish of the season until the safety car was deployed on Lap 25 due to Adrian Sutil's crash at the Nouvelle Chicane.

And although that particular safety car period will be remembered for Lewis Hamilton's fury over team radio, it played a decisive role in ruining Raikkonen's afternoon. Max Chilton's Marussia tripped over the Ferrari at Mirabeau during the irritating shuffling of lapped cars, leaving the No. 7 car with a puncture.

Raikkonen recovered admirably—albeit with the aid of other drivers' problems.

He was running in eighth in the closing stages before lunging his car down the inside of Magnussen, his sparring partner, at the Grand Hotel Hairpin, overcooking the 30 mph turn and knocking his front wing against the barrier.

The subsequent pit stop presented Raikkonen, at that point with nothing to play for, the opportunity to take his frustration out on the Monaco circuit.

And he did so with panache—setting the fastest lap of the race on Lap 75 of 78, which the official F1 website recorded as seven tenths faster than the previous fastest lap, leaving us contemplating what could have been.

Raikkonen commented on his misfortune to Ferrari's official website, stating:

This was a very unlucky day for me, a real shame after getting a good start and managing to move up to third place. The car was handling well and had a good pace.

Unfortunately, in a Safety Car period, my car was hit by Chilton’s Marussia and I had to make an unscheduled stop as my right rear tyre was damaged and that meant the end of any chance of getting a good result.

I am sorry I still haven’t managed to get a good result because we are working very hard. We know there is a lot to do as our rivals are still a long way ahead, but I am sure that if we continue down this path the results will come, maybe with a bit more luck.

It is in the interests of not only Ferrari and Raikkonen but Formula One itself that the 2007 world champion's luck changes soon.

The subject of motivation is often overplayed in reference to the Finn, but there is a risk that he will not hesitate in once again finding alternative routes to success and enjoyment in other formulae if his fortunes in Formula One do not improve.

And if that does occur, Ferrari may turn to Jules Bianchi, who benefited from stacks of good luck on Sunday to secure Marussia's first F1 points.

But despite Bianchi's obvious potential, the prospect of the Frenchman alongside Alonso is not as mouthwatering as a Raikkonen/Alonso partnership.

However, the chances are that Raikkonen's luck will change in due course and the battle that promised so much will deliver.

After all, he can't have much bad luck left in the tank. 

For much of the 2014 Formula One season, Kimi Raikkonen has struggled to match the pace of his Ferrari teammate, Fernando Alonso. At the Spanish Grand Prix, though, Raikkonen outqualified Alonso and was leading him on track for most of the race.

However, a decision by the team to put Alonso on a three-stop strategy—thought by tyre supplier Pirelli to be the best strategy at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya—while putting Raikkonen on a two-stopper allowed the Spaniard to pass his Finnish teammate at the end of the race.

Raikkonen was not pleased, saying that, "Going for a two stop strategy proved to be the wrong choice because tyre degradation meant I couldn't push all the way to the end," per the official F1 website.

The Iceman has finished behind his teammate at every race this season, an unusual situation for a driver used to being the team leader. Of course, Alonso is a two-time world champion, also accustomed to getting his way.

However, it is Raikkonen who last brought the Drivers' Championship to Maranello, in 2007 during his first stint with the team, before he was cast aside in favour of Alonso.

His return this season always had the potential for fireworks. Look no further than Alain Prost vs. Ayrton Senna—the most famous rivalry in F1 history—for the potential consequences of having two world champions on the same team.

The Spanish Grand Prix, though, was the first time this year the Ferrari teammates have been able to go head-to-head over a full race distance.

Raikkonen drove well, holding Alonso off for as long as possible, but ultimately he could not overcome the difference in their tyres. Raikkonen stopped for the final time on Lap 43, whereas Alonso's tyres were 10 laps fresher following his last stop on Lap 53.

There is speculation that Alonso is looking to leave Ferrari after this season—for a sample, see NBC Sports' Luke Smith. The team has not been able to provide him with the best car in the field since his arrival in 2010 and, if anything, they have fallen further behind this year.

Putting Alonso on the faster strategy in Spain could have been an attempt by the team to placate him, to demonstrate that he is still their No. 1 driver, without having to come out and say it.

It is common, though, for teams to put their drivers on two different strategies, especially in races with only a small projected difference in, say, a two- or three-stop race. That way, the team avoids getting caught out with both cars if one strategy does prove to be much quicker.

The other issue, from Raikkonen's point of view, is that Alonso was allowed to stop one lap before him during the first round of pit stops.

When mid-race refuelling was still allowed, it usually paid to stay out longer than your opponents to put in some fast laps with low fuel. Now, it is usually better to pit first, so that you are racing on fresh tyres while your opponent continues on an older set. Therefore, when teammates are battling on track, it is standard practice to bring the leader in first so that he can maintain his advantage after the stops.

That Alonso was given that privilege in Spain is unusual, but it is not the reason he beat Raikkonen. The Finn managed to stay ahead after the first (and second) stop. It was, as noted above, Alonso's fresher tyres in the closing laps which made the difference.

In the end, though, Ferrari may have created a headache for themselves for no reason. With their two drivers swapping positions, the team did not gain anything. Yes, Alonso is further ahead in the Drivers' standings, but he has no realistic chance of catching the Mercedes pair anyway.

And even if it is the case that the strategies were chosen to make Alonso happy, the final result in the race is likely to negate that emotion. Alonso is racing to win—swapping seventh place for sixth will not make a difference when he decides whether to stay at Ferrari or not.

If Ferrari do want to keep Alonso, they have to build him a championship-contending car. If they want to keep Raikkonen, they cannot treat him as Alonso's sidekick.

There is already enough turmoil in Maranello, with the sudden resignation of team principal Stefano Domenicali and the team's desperate struggle to reel in Mercedes. Creating unnecessary tension between the Scuderia's drivers will not benefit anyone...except maybe their rivals.

As Raikkonen said, per ESPN F1, when asked about the strategy choices in Spain, "I want to clear up a few things." Hopefully the team has a good explanation for him so he can concentrate on racing, instead of having it in the back of his mind that he might not be getting the same support as his teammate.

Maybe then we will see the great rivalry we expected before the season and which was hinted at in Spain.

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As Fernando Alonso claimed Ferrari’s first podium of the 2014 Formula One season at the Chinese Grand Prix, your thoughts may have turned to Stefano Domenicali.

Domenicali resigned from his position as team principal of Ferrari a week ago, paying the price for the Prancing Horse’s average start to the season, which reached its lowest ebb when Alonso and teammate Kimi Raikkonen finished ninth and tenth, respectively, in the last round in Bahrain.

Insult was added to the injury in Sakhir when Alonso, who has a tendency to allow his emotions to get the better of him, performed a mock celebration as he crossed the finish line, raising his right arm from the cockpit in “victory.”

It proved to be the last act of Domenicali’s six-year tenure as the boss of the most successful team in the sport’s history, a period which saw Ferrari regress from serial world championship winners to mere contenders, now driven by hope rather than the unwavering expectation that defined the era of Michael Schumacher’s domination.

That Alonso saw fit to “celebrate” a ninth-place finish for a team with 221 race victories to its name was the final straw for Luca di Montezemolo, the Ferrari president, whose displeasure was barely contained in Bahrain.

It was, nevertheless, cruel Ferrari should return to the podium in the race immediately following Domenicali’s departure. The record books in the years to come will show the team instantly performed at a much higher level when the Italian was removed from the equation.

Even Alonso himself, despite dedicating the result to his former team principal, spoke as if the result in Shanghai could be a turning point for the Italian outfit, telling Ferrari’s official website:

After a difficult start to the season, this podium is a confidence boost for the whole team, providing extra motivation for all those who are doing their best to close the gap to the front. And I think this podium should be dedicated to Stefano, as everything we do up to July will also be the result of his efforts.

We have definitely made a step forward, because compared to two weeks ago, we have partly closed the gap to the leaders, but we are well aware there’s still a long way to go and we have to keep our feet on the ground.

Alonso stressing the need to “keep our feet on the ground” after finishing a distant third, over 20 seconds behind the race-winning Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton, is indicative of just how Ferrari have fallen in recent years—and how it’ll take much more than a change at the top of the hierarchy to return the team to their former glories.

Ferrari’s positive achievement in Shanghai, you see, was neither the consequence of boardroom reshuffling nor the introduction of significant technical upgrades, but the direct result of the phenomenon that is Alonso Power.

Alonso Power has often been the only thing that has carried Ferrari through the five seasons that the Spanish driver has spent at Maranello, Italy.

He has almost single-handedly dragged the team along with him to success, even on the occasions when he has publicly aired his dissatisfaction with their poor performance levels.

Although the effect of Alonso Power was disguised in recent times by Ferrari’s substandard cars, the Chinese Grand Prix proved that it is still alive and well.

His intentions were clear from the very start of the grand prix when he remained undeterred, keeping his foot planted to the floor and his steering wheel still, despite being assaulted by Felipe Massa, his former teammate, on the run towards Turn 1.

And when he emerged from the opening sequence in a podium position, he sure as hell was not giving it away.

Alonso’s defiance of logic was evident in the timing information provided by the FIA. Ferrari’s lack of straight-line speed was reflected in Alonso’s 16^th position on the speed trap recordings.

The No. 14 Ferrari was recorded as travelling at 321.9 kph—almost 15 kph slower than pace-setter Nico Rosberg, who passed Alonso for second place in the latter stages of the race.

Despite that deficit, however, Alonso still managed to record the ninth-fastest time of anyone in the third sector of the lap at Shanghai, which features the longest straight in Formula One. And despite failing to record a sector time worthy of more than fifth place on the timesheets in the grand prix, he still recorded the fourth-fastest lap of the race.

It was a truly staggering performance, made all the more brilliant by the troubles encountered by Raikkonen, the driver running on Shell fuel and a couple of energy recovery systems with no added Alonso Power.

As his teammate battered his way towards the front at the first corner, Raikkonen, after qualifying outside of the top 10 for the second time in four races, was seen having the type of lock-up that has defined his 2014 season thus far.

The 2007 world champion, who rarely has allowed his emotions to get the better of him, has never appeared as downbeat as he has recently. Raikkonen’s body language in his post-race interview with Sky Sports in Bahrain showed a driver beyond frustration, beyond disappointment.

What should have been the most spectacular inter-team battle of the season has turned out to be a one-sided mauling, with Raikkonen anonymous in each of the opening grands prix of the year in contrast to his tenure at Lotus between 2012 and 2013, when he made the status as the grid’s dark horse his own.

The Finn’s lack of pace in comparison to Alonso has forced a reassessment of Raikkonen’s abilities as a world champion, and while Alonso can be relied upon to plaster over Ferrari’s troubles, it is Raikkonen’s car that can be interpreted as the real indicator of the team’s performance deficit.

And on that evidence, Ferrari have a long way to go.  

Formula One is as much about entertainment as it is about cold-blooded competition. That is why double points will be awarded for the final race this season, and that is why so many people are complaining about the lack of noise produced by the new hybrid V6 power units.

So far in 2014, there has been another element missing from the sport, one that straddles the line between the competitive and entertaining sides of the sport (even if not intentionally so). That element is Kimi Raikkonen.

He is not missing the same way he was when he decided to take the last two (or three—depending on how you view his first-corner accident in Abu Dhabi) races of the 2013 season off. No, the Iceman has lined up on the grid for the first three races this year, but he has not really been in those races.

His season started with a lacklustre outing in Australia, and two collisions with Kevin Magnussen compromised his races in Malaysia and Bahrain. His finishes so far—seventh, 12th and 10th—have left him with only seven points, good for 12th place in the Drivers' Championship.

Of course, Raikkonen, winner of 20 grands prix and the 2007 world championship, has not suddenly forgotten how to drive. His underpowered Ferrari, along with Magnussen, have played a large role in his poor results so far this year.

But those poor results hurt more than just Raikkonen. As one of the most popular drivers in F1, when he is the centre of attention it helps promote the sport. Whether he is "having a s**t" or taking a self-guided tour of Sao Paulo, Raikkonen has provided a lot of entertaining, refreshingly-candid moments for F1 fans.

Raikkonen is not the only driver to speak his mind whenever he feels like it, but he is certainly one of the best drivers to do so. The more successful a driver becomes, the less incentive there is for him to rock the boat, potentially upsetting the team and sponsors who make him rich.

That is why it is so disappointing, with Raikkonen's career likely nearing its end, to see him stuck in the midfield, frustrated with his team, his car and himself.

It's much better to have him fighting for victories and dishing out his laconic humour than listening to him complain about another poor performance in his inexplicably (considering the size of Ferrari's budget) slow car.

Aside from the Iceman's missing character, fans are also being cheated out of a potentially all-time classic duel between two world champion teammates. Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso were supposed to be one of the star pairings of the season. Instead, their position has been usurped by Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

This weekend in China, things do not seem to be getting any better for Raikkonen. He completed only one lap during the first free practice session while Alonso topped the timesheet. In the second session, the Finn completed 25 laps, but his best time was nearly a second slower than his teammate's.

Even with new team principal Marco Mattiacci at the helm, it is difficult to see Ferrari making significant gains in the short-term relative to Mercedes, Red Bull and even the Mercedes power unit customers.

The appeal of F1 is the chance to see the best drivers in the world racing in the best cars. Right now, though, two of the best drivers—and one of the best characters—do not have anything close to the best car.

For the sake of the sport—and for the sanity of millions of tifosi around the world—hopefully that will change.

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Ferrari’s troubles have been piling up this campaign, with Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso both failing to make a big impact on the grand prix season so far.

Following the departure of team principal Stefano Domenicali after a shaky start to the campaign, Marco Mattiacci has taken to the Ferrari hot seat to try to reverse the team’s fortunes.

The company announced the Italian's appointment via Twitter on Monday with the hope that it would be the start of a new revolution at Ferrari:

However, Raikkonen admitted he doesn’t know too much about the new man in charge, as Autosport.com reported.

"I don't know him. We've probably met before. He's got great people around him to help him so I don't see that there will be any issues. I'm sure he'll do everything in his power to push things forward."

Alonso and Raikkonen were both in the top five of last season’s final standings—per Sky Sports—but are yet to record a podium finish between them this time around.

According to the report, Mattiacci was previously the CEO of Ferrari’s North American operations, and he’ll certainly need to use his finely tuned management skills to good effect in his new role.

However, per ESPN, Mattiacci's experience in Formula One is extremely limited, having spent his entire professional career working on the company’s car road sales—no wonder Raikkonen didn’t know who he was.

Raikkonen’s fellow racer Alonso believes that the inexperienced Mattiacci just needs time to adjust as the Ferrari boss, though, as reported by The Guardian:

We need to give him time, to see how he settles. It's obviously too early to say whether he will be very good or very bad. We need to make sure he has the facilities ready, all the technical stuff, that all the team are behind him to ensure he settles as fast as possible, to put him in a place where he feels comfortable.

Next up for Ferrari is the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai, where Alonso and Raikkonen placed first and second in last year’s race.

Per FIA, “Ferrari are the most successful constructors at this race, with four victories (Barrichello ’04, Schumacher ’06, Raikkonen ’07 and Alonso ’13),” giving Raikkonen, Alonso and indeed Ferrari a happy hunting ground at which to start the new era.

Midseason coaching and management changes may be common in other professional sports when a team is under-performing, but they are somewhat more unusual in Formula One.

That is why, even after a particularly poor start, it was such a shock this week when Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali resigned from his position just three races into the season.

Ferrari is currently sitting in fifth place in the Constructors' standings with just 33 points. More importantly, though, it is way behind Mercedes in terms of engine development.

Still, it seems an odd time for Domenicali to step down.

Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo praised his former team principal for falling on his sword, telling Italy's Gazzetta dello Sport (via Autosport) that, "After 23 years with us, Stefano has had the courage of resigning, a rare occurrence in our country. He pays for the lack of results, it's a rule in sports."

But was Domenicali even the problem? Replacing him will not instantly give Ferrari the horsepower it needs to catch the Mercedes-powered teams.

Montezemolo no doubt recognizes this, so perhaps he is playing the long game: putting in place the pieces he wants now so that the team will be ready for a renewed challenge next season.

And the chairman was very clear about what he wanted. In the same interview with Gazzetta dello Sport (again, via Autosport), Montezemolo said, "I've decided to go for a young manager I strongly believe in, and on a person from the Ferrari family, thus avoiding me going around the world looking for some mercenary."

That member of the Ferrari family is Marco Mattiacci, who is very experienced in the Ferrari road car business, but not on the racing side. That need not be an issue, though. For example, another Italian businessman—Flavio Briatore—won championships as the head of Benetton and Renault, albeit before his career ended in controversy.

It is quite interesting, however, that Montezemolo made such a point of picking someone from within the Ferrari company. Domenicali was nothing if not a "Ferrari man" himself, but that obviously did not guarantee success.

Ferrari's last period of extended dominance, the early 2000s, was the work of a number of "mercenaries" who were neither Italian nor lifelong Ferrari employees: Michael Schumacher of Germany, Frenchman Jean Todt, South African Rory Byrne and Ross Brawn from the U.K.

The biggest problem at Ferrari right now, though, is not who is running the team. It is the fact that, despite having the rules of the sport tipped in their favour, the Scuderia has been unable to produce a competitive car.

And now, rather than putting their heads down and trying to catch Mercedes (although surely the team in Maranello is working hard), Montezemolo has decided to complain publicly about the sport's new regulations.

Before the last race, in Bahrain, the Ferrari chairman said, per ESPN F1, that the "public doesn't like a taxi driver that has to respect the fuel. This is not Formula One." Embarrassingly for Montezemolo, Bahrain turned out to be one of the best races in recent memory.

If his tactics seem familiar, though, it is because Red Bull did the same thing last year when the tyres produced by Pirelli at the beginning of the season did not seem to function as well on the Bulls as on some other cars.

Red Bull campaigned relentlessly against the tyres until Pirelli was forced to change them. Sebastian Vettel dominated the rest of the season and Red Bull won its fourth straight Drivers' and Constructors' titles.

Montezemolo must figure that if it worked for Red Bull, it should work for him. He should save his breath.

Unlike the Pirelli tyres, the new power units are not going anywhere. It looks like the other teams will be battling for second place behind the Silver Arrows for the foreseeable future.

If that does prove to be the case, Montezemolo has no one left to blame but himself. As he said, it is the man in charge who is held accountable if the results don't come.

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Time is running out for Fernando Alonso.

The dream partnership he embarked upon when he joined Ferrari in 2010 has, after a period of gradual decline, gone stale.

Following the Bahrain Grand Prix, we’re now three races into the 2014 Formula One season and Alonso is rather uncharacteristically yet to register on anyone’s consciousness. He is still waiting for his first podium of the year while his first victory of the campaign is entirely reliant on his skills as an amateur magician.

The rabbit is wasting away at the very bottom of the hat with Alonso stuck on 26 points, the same amount of points he had registered after three grands prix in 2011—the year that he claimed only a single win—and he is already 35 behind Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg, the current world championship leader.

The major difference between 2011 and 2014, though, is that it is no longer a surprise to see Ferrari struggling. Their fall from serial title winners to mere podium hopefuls over the last decade has been alarming, and it is worrying that nobody now seems to notice when the lead car of the most successful team in the sport’s history trundles its way to fourth place, the positions Alonso claimed in Australia and Malaysia.

In short, mediocrity is the team’s new, accepted level.

This would have been unacceptable at the best of times for an institution as gigantic as Ferrari, but in 2014—when the new regulation changes were set to provide the Prancing Horse with a fresh start—it is bordering on unforgivable.

Formula One’s renewed status as an engine formula was, in theory, set to play into the hands of major manufacturers who produce their own powertrain as well as their chassis.

And while Mercedes have capitalised on the rule changes to establish not only their works team but their customer outfits as the class of the field (six of the top 10 drivers in the Bahrain Grand Prix were powered by the German manufacturer), Ferrari have been left behind, resorted to picking up the scraps.

The Italian team’s failure to use the 2014 regulations as a stepping stone to return to the front of the pack is almost certainly the final straw for Alonso, who turns 33 in July, and who now has little choice but to seek alternative employment.

The Spaniard had already sewn the seed for a potential transfer in 2013 when he was quoted by BBC Sport’s Andrew Benson as claiming he wanted “someone else’s car” following the Hungarian Grand Prix, and with this season a write-off barring a Mercedes implosion, Alonso must take further steps toward plotting an escape route from Ferrari.

The obvious move, of course, would be a return to McLaren. Martin Whitmarsh had spoken flatteringly of Alonso when questioned by Sky Sports at last year’s Singapore Grand Prix, but after a winter of change at Woking, Whitmarsh has been reduced from his position as team principal of McLaren to F1’s answer to Where’s Wally.

The mutual dislike between Alonso and Ron Dennis, the Group CEO of McLaren, is common knowledge after the Spaniard’s first stint with the team in 2007, although the latter did admit to being open to the idea of re-signing the double world champion to BBC Sport last year. Alonso, however, admitted that his openness to rejoining the team was down to the fact that Dennis was, at that point, a background figure at McLaren.

Kevin Magnussen’s near-seamless transition to F1 means that he will surely be retained for 2015 while Jenson Button’s plans are as yet unclear, although you’d expect the thought of aligning with Honda, McLaren’s powertrain partner from next season, will appeal to the 2009 world champion as much as Alonso.

Aside from McLaren, Alonso’s options are limited.

Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton are likely to remain with Mercedes unless tensions boil over in the heat of this season’s title battle, and Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel should remain at Red Bull unless the latter feels he can extract no more from the four-time world champions.

This presents quite a dilemma for Alonso: Does he reaffirm his belief and hope in the Ferrari project or take the biggest gamble of his career and join a less fashionable team to get his hands on that decisive Mercedes engine?

The true beauty of the new regulations is that teams such as Williams and Force India have suddenly transformed from being standard midfield runners to increasingly attractive propositions for drivers. Sergio Perez’s podium in Bahrain confirmed the latter’s continuous growth in stature, while the recent additions in personnel and sponsorship at Williams suggest the team could return to the front of the grid somewhere down the line.

Indeed, Alonso’s status as the highest-paid driver on the grid (he earned $30 million in 2013, according to the Forbes Rich List) would be an issue, but at this stage of his career, it is a question of whether he wants to be the richest driver of the grid or the most successful.

And given that he told Sky Sports’ Johnny Herbert in Abu Dhabi last year that he would give “one arm” to win another title, the prospect of him taking one step backward in order to go forward is not as outlandish as it may seem.

This September will mark nine years since Alonso coasted his Renault in to parc ferme at Interlagos as the man who had just broken Michael Schumacher’s five-year winning streak. As F1’s youngest world champion at the time, it was expected that he would embark upon his own period of dominance, breaking every record in his path.

Since then, however, his career has mostly been a tale of near-misses, missed opportunities and false hope, with him losing the title by less than five points on three separate occasions. The prospect of a driver of such vast talent and influence as Alonso retiring with only two world titles to his name is unthinkable, yet is an ever-increasing possibility.

A change of scenery would serve the Spaniard well and allow Alonso to regain the momentum that Ferrari’s incompetence has cruelly robbed of him.

Some things are just never meant to work out.

Fernando Alonso of Ferrari has spent a lot of the first two races of the 2014 Formula One season looking at the back of Nico Hulkenberg's Force India.

Sure, the Spaniard eventually passed Hulkenberg in both Australia and Malaysia, but Ferrari—the most successful team in F1 history—is not in the sport to battle the likes of Force India (one podium finish in six-plus years).

Even more disheartening for the team from Maranello, Alonso has been the better of their two drivers so far. Kimi Raikkonen looked uncompetitive en route to a seventh-place finish in Melbourne. Then, a collision with Kevin Magnussen on Lap 2 of the Malaysian Grand Prix left him at the back of the field and he struggled to 12th place, behind the much-maligned Lotus of Romain Grosjean.

As Bleacher Report's Neil James pointed out following the first race of the year, Ferrari's race pace is significantly lagging, and it will be quite difficult to make up the gap in the development battle.

Ferrari's biggest problem is their engine. It certainly does not seem to have the same power as the Mercedes unit (see, for example, the Malaysian speed-trap data provided by the FIA).

Perhaps more worrying are reports, such as this one from F1 pundit James Allen, that the Ferrari power unit is less fuel efficient than its rivals. That was backed up by television graphics shown during the Malaysian race. Here is the last update provided, showing the top 10 drivers with two laps remaining in the race:

Position	Driver	Engine	% of Fuel Used
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	91.56
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	95.08
3	Sebastian Vettel	Renault	95.66
4	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	94.80
5	Nico Hulkenberg	Mercedes	92.66
6	Jenson Button	Mercedes	94.67
7	Felipe Massa	Mercedes	88.46
8	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	89.87
9	Kevin Magnussen	Mercedes	94.36
10	Daniil Kvyat	Renault	93.70

Only Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel used more fuel than Alonso, and the Ferrari was trailing both of them by a significant margin. Over the full race distance, Alonso's average lap time was 0.204 seconds slower than Vettel's and 0.333 seconds slower than Rosberg's.

Hulkenberg, who troubled Alonso for most of the race, used much less fuel than the Ferrari.

Ferrari chassis director Pat Fry acknowledged after the race, per the official F1 website, that, "The F14 T continues to make progress and has proved to have good reliability, but we know this is not enough. We know we are working in the right direction, but if we want to reduce the gap to the leaders, we need to make a major step forward."

Restrictions on in-season engine development, though, make it difficult for teams to find a big leap in performance—especially in Ferrari's case, if the engine is the biggest issue.

Still, Alonso sounded optimistic following the Malaysian race, saying, "It is not the perfect start to the championship but the team is doing a massive effort to catch up," according to Andrew Benson of the BBC.

"We will improve, that's for sure," Alonso continued. "We are analysing the areas we need to improve. They seem very clear to us."

If Ferrari can find the necessary improvements, they are still in a good position in the championship. Alonso is third in the drivers' standings, trailing Lewis Hamilton by one point and Rosberg by 19. The team is also third in the Constructors' Championship, behind Mercedes and McLaren.

The Ferrari F14 T has also been reliable so far this year. Were it not for Magnussen puncturing Raikkonen's tyre in Malaysia, Ferrari would likely have joined McLaren as the only teams with both drivers scoring points in each of the first two races.

Reliability alone may not be enough to end Ferrari's title drought, though—currently in its seventh season. The doomsday scenarios with only a handful of cars taking the chequered flag have not come to pass so far in 2014.

The Scuderia will have to find more speed somewhere. Otherwise, despite one of the largest budgets in the sport, the team may be left with nothing to celebrate yet again.

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