When asked in an interview here in the summer of 1998 about his ambitions at Ferrari, Michael Schumacher said he wanted not only to win the Formula One title but also to create a Ferrari era.
"As McLaren was the team of the '80s, Williams the team of the '90s, it would be fantastic if Ferrari could become the team of the 2000s," he said. "That is what I would like to do together with them; not just bring it there, but then take the advantage of it."
It sounded a bit farfetched as Ferrari had not won a drivers' title since 1979 or a team title since 1983. But in 1999 it finally won the constructors' title, and from 2000 to 2004, Ferrari and Schumacher won them all, building the longest period of domination by any team in the 55-year history of the sport.
This weekend, Ferrari returns to Monza for the Italian Grand Prix with practically no chance to win anything and faced with the departure of key personnel that hearkens an end of that era.
"In years past we arrived at Monza close to clinching the championship and fighting for victory," Schumacher said, "but this time I'm not even sure whether we will make the podium."
For Schumacher Sunday's race is the last chance to stay in the battle with Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen, as he lies 40 points behind the Spaniard with five races left. But he has lost hope.
"I'm a realist, and some races ago I pretty much knew that it's no longer possible to fight for the championship, and especially after Turkey," Schumacher said in Monza on Thursday.
Indeed, after the Turkish Grand Prix two weeks ago, when the team failed to score any points, Jean Todt, the team director, said the reason was the same one that had plagued their whole season: "chronic lack of grip."
He said this week that it was the season's new tire rule, which requires the same tire to be used throughout the race, that had stumped
their tire supplier, Bridgestone.
The team's only victory this season, and the only time the two other Bridgestone teams - Minardi and Jordan - scored points, was at the nonrace at Indianapolis in June, when all the Michelin teams withdrew with flawed tires.
But many Formula One observers say that in a way Ferrari got what it deserved. The key to the team's domination had been its close relationship with Bridgestone, which focused entirely on designing tires for Ferrari, a practice that alienated other Bridgestone teams.
One by one, the other teams defected to Michelin. Bridgestone was left with only three teams to cull testing data from as it developed new tires; Michelin had seven. Not even Ferrari's refusal to adhere to cost-cutting test reduction agreed to by the rest of the teams has saved it.
But the tire problem may also be a convenient mask for a deeper, problem. This year's Ferrari is the first since 1996 not designed by
Rory Byrne, the South African behind all of Schumacher's title-winning cars, at Ferrari and at Benetton in 1994 and 1995. The current car was the work of Aldo Costa, an Italian who is being groomed as a successor to Byrne after his retirement at the end of 2006.
That same date marks the conclusion of contracts held by
Ross Brawn, the technical director - who was also at Benetton -
Paolo Martinelli and
Gilles Simon, the engine directors, and
Todt.
Little is being said of the upset that prospect may be causing. And two of Schumacher's former teammates at Ferrari said in separate interviews that the team's problems can be traced to nothing other than the tires and that the other teams are simply improving.
"
There's no way Ferrari made a car that bad," said Eddie Irvine, who drove for the team from 1996 to 1999 and is retired.
Mika Salo, who replaced Schumacher for six races in 1999 when Schumacher broke his leg and who now races for Ferrari's sports car subsidiary, Maserati, said Ferrari was working as hard as ever. He recalled how shocking a contrast that was for a driver when coming from a less successful team, as he did after working at Tyrrell, Arrows and BAR.
"It's a surprise when you come from the smaller teams and the not-so-successful teams to see how much effort goes on there and how many people are working, and how clear it is for everybody what job they have," he said. "There they were working in three shifts, day and night all the time; at normal teams where I was, work stopped at five and they came back to work at nine in the morning."
He added that the other teams are now also working much harder, and said that it was only natural that the team's - and Schumacher's, the longest of any driver - reign would come to an end.
"The young guys need a validation of beating Michael in a wheel-to-wheel race, which they will do now because they're younger, more committed probably than Michael is," Irvine said. "I'm not saying Michael's not committed, but he's 36. Wheel to wheel, the young guy's going to win, I have no doubt about that."
If it is the end of an era, though, Ferrari's key to its recent success - its long and glorious history - should see it to the top again, Irvine said.
"The history meant that someone like Todt would go work there," Irvine said. "The history was what convinced Michael Schumacher to go there."
He added: "It's what has been built up over 50 years, 60 years of motor racing."
Source: Canada.com
