Ferrari at Turkey – The Prancing Horse Blows A Shoe

Ferrari competed in its 800th straight grand prix at Turkey this past weekend. What should have been a great celebration was more like a funeral.

Let’s move back in time a few years. Ferrari was mighty. Schumacher. Brawn. Todt. The car was simply unbeatable and had the grand master driving it. Then Schumacher was pushed out the door. Brawn and the key member of the team soon left as well. The question many had was could Ferrari maintain its winning ways without them? The answer is starting to become clear.


Ferrari won a lot of races the first two years of the post-Schumacher era. Then the rules changed dramatically and an entirely new car design was required. There hasn’t been much winning since then. The 2009 season was disgraceful with only one win and perhaps the fifth or sixth fastest car on the track. The questions about Ferrari grew.

The 2010 season is supposed to be about redemption. The great Fernando Alonso is in the team and the design problems of 2009 are supposed to be a thing of the past. The car does seem solid. Alonso won the first race of the season after Vettel had problems, but has been very competitive regardless in most races. The Turkish Grand Prix was not one of them and there are now many questions about the team again.



The primary problem seems to be car development. Ferrari was clearly the second fastest car at the start of the season behind Red Bull. That team, McLaren, Renault and Mercedes have clearly progressed and gained time on the track. Ferrari seems to have made no progress. The race in Turkey was staggering because the car was more than a full second off the pace of the front runners.

Is Ferrari doomed the rest of the year? It is hard to say. One has to recall the team should have won the Monaco Grand Prix or at least been right there but for Alonso crashing and missing qualifying. It may well be that Turkey is just a one-off track for the team, but close attention must be paid to how the team does in the near future. Canada is another high speed track that does not seem to favor the car, so things could be ugly for a bit.

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