Milestone only bright spot in miserable year for Ferrari

THERE’S not much wrong with Ferrari at the moment — just the car, the engine, the drivers and the management. Which is a curse because this weekend marks the Scuderia’s 1,000th race, a figure no other team can boast. And the bunting is coming out tonight in Florence’s Piazza della Signoria. A public show close to the Fountain of Neptune will give way to an invitation-only gala dinner. Every man alive who has driven one grand prix in the red car has been asked along. So has Piero, the second and only living son of Enzo Ferrari, as well as those who led the team along the high road of history, Luca Montezemolo and Jean Todt chief among them. Michael Schumacher, unseen by the world since his skiing accident in 2013, will not attend. He continues his recovery, if that’s the word, back home in Switzerland — ‘fighting’ as Todt said again yesterday. The family will be represented by son Mick, the 21-year-old Ferrari academy driver who won his second F2 race last week in Monza, which was at least something for the Tifosi to cheer. Tomorrow, ahead of the Tuscan Grand Prix in Mugello, where there will be a sprinkling of fans for the first time this season, he will drive the car his father steered to the last of his seven world titles 16 years ago. In all, Ferrari have won 16 constructors’ and 15 drivers’ titles, both records. In light of that history, how will this year’s awful lack of competitiveness go down with the exquisite pasta at the big bash?

This season is one of the team’s worst ever, certainly since the early Nineties when Montezemolo was summoned back by Fiat’s Gianni Agnelli to work his restorative magic. In fact, they were in more of a pickle back then because the whole business was in tatters. At least now the piggybank is well-stocked. And, to be serious, they have a promising driver in Charles Leclerc, but it is hard to judge just how good he will be. At the moment, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen stand above him. Awful races in Spa and Monza showed how bad it is since their suspect engine was reined in by the FIA. They are left with too little power and too much downforce. Yesterday’s practice finished with Leclerc tenth quickest and Sebastian Vettel 12th. This track is theoretically more suited to their car than the previous two. A flicker of hope, perhaps, but they cannot remotely match Mercedes’ might. A new engine for next year is running on the bench in Maranello. But even if that works for them, have they got the right men in the right jobs — team principal Mattio Binotto, for example? Will his bosses — chairman John Elkann and chief executive Louis Camilieri — remain loyal? In a recent interview, Camilieri said he was inclined to do so. The Scuderia’s most telling loss in the last three of four years is that of English engineer James Allison, their technical director. He is now at Mercedes and precisely the man Ferrari need. Yesterday FIA president Todt, who was at Schumacher’s side in his glory years, said: ‘Mercedes have to be admired but the others have to kick their a*** to make a challenge. It is as simple as that.’