Scuderia Ferrari

a shadow of its past

15 drivers’ championships, 16 constructors’ championships, 241 wins and 784 podiums. The
Italian F1 giant, Scuderia Ferrari, is undoubtedly the most prestigious team to have ever
competed in the sport. It is also the only team to have raced every single season of the sport since
its first in 1950. Clearly, Ferrari has been very successful in the sport but this success comes at a
cost. Expectations. The Scuderia has a massive fanbase, by far the most passionate in the sport,
the Tifosi. Unfortunately, the Tifosi has been subject to a string of disappointment for a long
time.

The last time Ferrari won a Drivers’ Championship was all the way back in 2007 with Kimi
Raikkonen, which is now almost 15 years ago. Since then, Ferrari has struggled to find its place
once again among the top teams, unable to give its drivers a car and a team that is capable of
winning. They’ve come very close multiple times, 2010 and 2012 with Fernando Alonso being
the prime examples. They also came close to winning in 2017 and 2018 with Sebastian Vettel.
Other than these years, Ferrari has significantly underperformed as a team and has been unable to
live up to the expectations of not just the Tifosi but also every single Formula 1 fan.

In 2010 and 2012, Ferrari had a significantly worse car than the likes of RedBull and in some
cases, McLaren. I believe it was the sheer driving capacity of Fernando Alonso that brought
them so close to the title those years and the main reason they lost was bad luck. In 2010, Alonso
was held up by Vitaly Petrov at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and lost by a mere 4 points. In 2012,
Alonso lost by only 3 points as Sebastian Vettel made an incredible comeback from the back of
the grid at the season final in Brazil.

As for 2017 and 2018, Ferrari had the car to win but strategy mistakes, bad luck and driver
mistakes led to them dipping out of the title fight quite early.

In the years between, 2014-16 and 2019-21, Ferrari simply did not have the car to win and the
team in general was a mess. 2020 was arguably the worst year the Scuderia has ever had in their
70 years in the sport, finishing a whopping 6th out of 10 teams. The team was clearly on the up in
2021 with a new, young driver lineup and a sizeable increase in car performance, where they
finished 3rd on the grid, beating the likes of McLaren while simultaneously focusing on the 2022
season. Their aim for 2022 was clear. Win.

The team entered the 2022 season with high hopes. It felt like this was the season. A 15 years
long break from winning was going to come to an end. At the start of the season, Ferrari was
clearly in the battle for the top spot with RedBull, the title protagonists being Charles Leclerc
from Ferrari and Max Verstappen for RedBull. Both golden boys for each of their teams. Both
very young, both very hungry for a title. Verstappen for his 2nd in a row. Leclerc for his maiden.

The first few races went in Leclerc’s favor. Winning in Bahrain with a 1-2 with his teammate
Carlos Sainz, as Verstappen retired with an engine failure. They were clearly also in the mix for
the win in Saudi Arabia but this time around, Verstappen bested Leclerc by a small margin to
win. Leclerc finishing P2. Australia was an absolutely commanding race for Leclerc, domination
from start to finish with no problems and with RedBull having reliability issues yet again.

After the Australian Grand Prix, Leclerc stood at the top with 71 points while Verstappen was
down in 6th with only 25. RedBull then went on to win the next 6 races, with 5 wins for
Verstappen and 1 for his teammate, Sergio Perez in Monaco.

Ferrari was not able to match the RedBull’s pace in Imola and with Leclerc making a mistake
while chasing Sergio Perez for 2nd, he dropped down to 6th, losing 7 points. Meanwhile, his
teammate retired from the race after an incident at the start.

Leclerc finished P2 in Miami with Sainz in P3, Verstappen clearly being quicker yet they were
able to fend off his teammate.

Leclerc retired from the Spanish Grand Prix with engine problems while he was leading, while
his teammate finished 4th.

Monaco was an absolutely horrific day for the team, giving away what was almost a guaranteed
1-2 as a result of a strategy mistake. Sainz finished 2nd while Leclerc was 4th behind Verstappen
in 3rd, Perez winning the race.

Azerbaijan was another day to forget for the team, both drivers retiring from the race with
technical issues. Meanwhile, Verstappen won the race with Perez behind, making it a 1-2 finish
for RedBull.

As a result of the Azerbaijanian DNF, Leclerc took a new power unit and took a 20 place grid
penalty, starting from the back. He recovered back to P5 while Sainz showed good pace,
finishing under a second behind Verstappen in P1.

The British Grand Prix was a day of mixed emotions for the team, as Sainz got his maiden win
while Leclerc, who was leading comfortably with good pace, dropped out of P1 and finished 5th
due to a horrific strategy decision from the team.

Austria was similar to Great Britain because while Leclerc won, Sainz dropped out of the race
with yet another engine failure, costing the team a 1-2 finish.
At France, Sainz started from the back with a new engine while Leclerc put his car on pole.
Leclerc showed promising pace fending off Verstappen in P2 but made a horrific mistake,
spinning the car into the barriers and crashing out of the race. Sainz made it back to P5 from P20
but was robbed of a podium due to a 5 second stop and go penalty for an unsafe release.

Clearly, it has been a bittersweet year for Ferrari and its fans. On one hand, they clearly have a
car that is capable of winning but on the other hand, it feels like the team is simply not ready to
win. Both their drivers have been giving it their absolute best and performing at their peak while
the team continues to make strategy errors and engine reliability stays at rock bottom.

All of this begs the question, can Ferrari come back to their winning ways? If yes, when?
Clearly, they do not have much time. While the Tifosi’s support remains unwavering, there is
certainly a sense of frustration among the fans because this has simply been going on for too
long. Will we ever see Schumacher’s era of Ferrari back? Will we ever see a driver in a red suit
lift the Drivers’ Championship Trophy? Will the 15 years of commitment and support from the
Tifosi ever be rewarded?