AR3-GP wrote: ↑29 Nov 2022, 19:45
It was an absolutely disastrous year to only take 3 wins with this F1-75 and Charles Leclerc.
They had 4 wins for the F1-75, and obviously could have won in France if not for Leclerc crashing and in Spain and Baku if not for engine failure.
It's a shame that TD039 (would using the veto have been too politically explosive for the sport?) and detuning the engine made the car less competitive in the second half of the season, but it's best not to overreact. Ferrari will try again with the 2023 car... F1 is a game of incremental improvements.
The faction of Santander and Sainz certainly ties the teams hands on using team orders and developing the car to have extreme oversteer (as Leclerc and Verstappen prefer, and Red Bull dutifully provides regardless of Perez's complaints but not Ferrari regardless of Sainz/Santander), but they can try again with the stronger 2023 front tyre and this time ignore Sainz's crashes and complaints of an undriveable car.
One must bear in mind that Ferrari tried to fire Jean Todt in 1996... Such short-term thinking is grossly unwise IMO.
The Italian press gave Ferrari a rough ride in the newspapers in the days after the disastrous Magny-Cours weekend, and when Michael Schumacher suffered another engine blow-up in testing last week at Monza, there were renewed calls for change at Maranello. Such was the violence of the reaction that Michael Schumacher went on the offensive in his defense of team manager Jean Todt, the main target for the attacks.
"Jean Todt is one of the best people at Ferrari," said the World Champion at Monza. "If you want to destroy Ferrari, then kick out Todt. If you want the team to grow, let him stay."
Todt had said after the French GP that he was ready to resign from the team if he was asked to do so because of the dreadful results in Canada and France.
GrandPrix.com, July 8, 1996.
https://www.grandprix.com/news/pressure ... again.html
Such short-term methods are precisely why the likes of Andreas Seidl refuse the rumoured Ferrari offers - he prefers a permanent TP role at McLaren over a temporary TP role at Ferrari. Likewise Newey refusing a Ferrari technical director role, "Ferrari is a lot of money for a short period of time."