Sigi's tips: Ferrari at a snail's pace

Sigi Heinrich has been a sports reporter and TV commentator for decades.

How do you have to imagine it now when Mattia Binotto, the Ferrari team boss, says they have to now “turn over every stone” ? Will the wrenches be thrown away, thrown in the trash or perhaps given away? Does the entire team meet in Carrara to work in the marble quarries? Apparently his team has not mastered their traditional craft, which is to build a racing car as best as possible and always optimize it so that it is competitive in Formula 1. The figures that the first race revealed are shocking. Regardless of whether it appears to be going straight or, as can happen on a course, corners have to be completed: Ferrari is miles behind the evil black cars from Stuttgart. Added to this is the uncertainty of the second driver, Sebastian Vettel, who apparently doesn't have the best set of wheels in his last year in Italy. In Maranello they give it to Charles Leclerc, the 22-year-old Monegasque man who probably has the future. Vettel is already a legend behind the wheel. Unused compulsory break However, in view of the defeat in Spielberg (even if Leclerc's 2nd place was respectable), one can now ask, what have Binotto and his men done since the first test races in Barcelona? The cancellations came because of Corona. Good or not good. But during this compulsory break there would have been enough time to make the red racer suitable for competition. Did they just play with model cars in Maranello in the meantime or was the entire group in quarantine with all the resolutions they had set for the new season? Helplessness is spreading in the Ferrari racing team. Even the first serious gallop showed that our own horses were weakening. This hits the Ferrari fan to the core. More and more of the aura that Michael Schumacher once played a key role in shaping with his successes is being lost. Fascinating beauty The former Silver Arrows, which now look as if they had just returned from a mission in Star Wars, still cannot convey that longing that spontaneously strikes every motorsport fan when they just say the word “Ferrari”. Ferrari is a myth, a somehow typical Italian phenomenon that always captivates us. For years, the design expertise of sheet metal for a four-wheeled vehicle belonged almost exclusively to Italians. Scaglietti, Bertone, Zagato, Pininfarina and of course perhaps the artist we are most familiar with - because they were all of them - Giorgio Giugiaro. Just Bella Italia. In every relationship. The most beautiful furniture, the best tenors, the most beautiful women. The fastest cars too. Back in the day. There is still a little bit left of this shine. Alfa Romeo, for example, is still a vehicle outside the “mainstream”. But the beautiful study of the “Tonale”, a smaller SUV, seems to have been crushed between some conveyor belts on the way between idea and reality. That's only an example. The Ferrari Formula 1 team also seems to have completely missed the phase that they were given to make necessary adjustments to their racing car. There won't be many wake-up calls anymore. Otherwise there is a real risk of quarrying.

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Sigi's tips: Ferrari at a snail's pace

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