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Ferrari: The Passion and the Pain
Jane Nottage
The inside story of Ferrari’s 1998 Formula 1 season and the team’s battle with McLaren for the World Championship. The Ferrari drivers and key team members reflect on a season of drama, excitement and no little controversy.What were the factors behind the improved performance of the team this season? Who were the characters behind the scenes backing up the brilliant driving of Michael Schumacher and Eddie Irvine? What were the pivotal moments in Ferrari’s head-to-head duel with McLaren throughout the season?Ferrari tells the story from the inside, in the eyes of the team. It features interviews with the drivers and all the key Ferrari personnel, including Jean Todt, Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne – plus an exclusive team view of the Schumacher controversy at Spa involving David Coulthard – along with all the race action from the season.The book also looks back to the signing of Schumacher at the start of the 1996 season and follows the team’s fluctuating fortunes through to the dramatic climax of 1997 at Jerez. With its penetrating insight into the inner sanctum of Ferrari, this fascinating expose is a must for all Ferrari fans.





COPYRIGHT (#ulink_fa4004a0-a015-50af-869e-eee8a2ce3d1a)
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 77–85 Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith, London W6 8JB www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
First published by HarperCollinsPublishers 1997
© Jane Nottage 1998
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Jane Nottage asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
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Source ISBN: 9780002188876
Ebook Edition © OCTOBER 2014 ISBN: 9780008119287
Version: 2014-10-24

DEDICATION (#ulink_0e7068d1-d35d-5a64-b290-d731e7b00c23)
This book is dedicated to Paul Wiget, with thanks for four wonderful years and with much love for a very happy future for him and his four lovely children, Phil, Isobel, Kevin and Anna, and Phil’s beautiful girlfriend Anette.

Contents
Cover (#u16a826c1-9e84-51c7-b265-a4aef8aacf2f)
Title Page (#u73797bbf-34c0-557f-b3c0-52ad03538a55)
Copyright (#ulink_fb3f1663-4146-56fe-a8fa-0d5dbe7ab628)
Dedication (#ulink_6000e5ce-b234-53a8-bca7-047284e7369e)
Foreword by Niki Lauda (#ulink_3ef15ff3-b83c-5efe-9960-f9288570e561)
Introduction (#ulink_c91e9d32-04bd-50b8-a322-578b372c6aff)
1996 SEASON
Chapter One THE LEGEND LIVES ON (#ulink_8762118b-b099-5fa6-8aa6-cc0f03a3982b)
Chapter Two ON A WING AND A PRAYER (#ulink_b1347b3d-ff80-548d-a35c-cd19dfa86b96)
Chapter Three THE SUMMER OF DISCONTENT (#ulink_be840779-ba38-5ca6-8f42-174f13fa5980)
Chapter Four THE ROAD TO VICTORY (#ulink_6599d169-3595-597f-b097-cd19c9035061)
1997 SEASON
Chapter Five NEW BEGINNINGS (#ulink_b977c4ab-0425-51f2-9980-9dabf6ba3404)
Chapter Six WINNING WAYS (#ulink_fd2500d8-ae28-5546-b440-3211d33bea89)
Chapter Seven A COLD SHOWER (#ulink_f372193c-f6b6-5d6c-aa65-7d51dacc20fb)
Chapter Eight THE FIGHT BACK (#ulink_633f1f44-10f3-5bc7-ad68-4cec483bd87b)
Chapter Nine SEPTEMBER DOLDRUMS (#ulink_0f9341b9-786f-5b56-93f8-764c6e2e765b)
Chapter Ten IN THE DEEP MIDWINTER (#ulink_e9148a40-642c-5a54-918c-5538141f11e5)
1998 SEASON
Chapter Eleven THE 1998 SEASON BEGINS (#ulink_65666d8e-e03f-568a-a180-7d093564af4e)
Chapter Twelve A WINNING COMBINATION (#ulink_9581b4ab-fdb4-5bea-ab82-0da0f63e2e8a)
Chapter Thirteen MID-SEASON BLUES (#ulink_2789427f-799f-51e4-94f1-4cfb2bda1f76)
Chapter Fourteen AN UPTURN IN FORTUNES (#ulink_5c70aa58-3f6c-5ce6-b3a4-317dcf1b1f7c)
Chapter Fifteen THE FINAL COUNTDOWN (#ulink_e7188413-98df-5636-9515-87bff7015063)
Race Results for 1998 (#ulink_2b9f9b77-a7a2-5576-9a6a-50ff928d849d)
Picture Section (#ulink_5c03c561-b9ff-594d-8bf8-fdbcf34e9b51)
Acknowledgements (#ulink_fc330960-6e6e-5892-8906-bde920dfd809)
About the Author (#ulink_88d5ee86-4628-5ec7-bb95-b76a58bf5898)
About the Publisher

Foreword (#ulink_96e6b963-39ab-55ec-b5b7-3513c5458c4d)
by NIKI LAUDA (#ulink_96e6b963-39ab-55ec-b5b7-3513c5458c4d)
Winning one World Championship with Ferrari is a special feeling. Winning two is simply unforgettable. Enzo Ferrari, like his cars, came out of a unique mould. He was sometimes difficult and intransigent, but above all he was the driving force behind one of the greatest racing teams of all time. We had some memorable run-ins during my four years at Ferrari, but my respect for this giant of motor racing and what he accomplished eclipses all else. Having later started my own company, Lauda Air, I understand the effort required to build up and maintain a successful business.
There are many good memories from my time as a Ferrari driver, but one or two are outstanding, such as the first time I won a Grand Prix with Ferrari. It happened at Jarama (in Spain) in 1974 and after this I understood what it was like to feel the warmth of the passionate tifosi, who were overjoyed.
Winning my first Formula One Drivers’ Championship with Ferrari was one of the highlights of my life. When it actually happened everything seemed to go by in a flash – the celebrations, the victory dinner, meeting the fans. But at the end I was left with an intense feeling of happiness, which I will never forget.
I was fortunate enough to have Luca di Montezemolo as my team manager when I won that title in 1975. As well as a being colleague, Luca became a friend and when he returned to Ferrari in 1992 as chairman, I became a consultant to help rebuild the fortunes of the team.
Luca is a brilliant strategist and visionary. He recognized the need to employ the right people in the right places, and over the last six years he has done just that. The result is that the Ferrari Formula One team has been able to show in the last two years particularly that it is once again a serious contender for the Formula One World Constructors’ Championship.
That kind of action takes courage and perseverance, particularly in a company like Ferrari, which is quintessentially Italian in its approach and its methods. Politics and intrigue have always played a part in the management, and it isn’t easy to cut through that and prepare the company for the future. To that end Luca has done a brilliant job, as have all the members of the team – especially Team Director Jean Todt and Michael Schumacher, who is the best racing driver of his generation, and the talented and competitive Eddie Irvine.
Above all, one must never forget that Ferrari is a team made up of different nationalities and personalities, and each and every one of them plays an important role. A racing team works under constant pressure, so the most junior mechanic is as important as the most senior manager in that they must all execute their jobs efficiently and quickly.
This book is unique in that it offers the reader a glimpse of what life is really like working for one of the most glamorous and enigmatic teams in Grand Prix motor racing; and, for the very first time, the sweat and toil and the passion and the pain of being part of Ferrari can be observed at close quarters.
Niki Lauda, Vienna, 1998

Introduction (#ulink_f178c6d6-d54a-560e-817d-9b1241aa02df)
The sound is unmistakable. A deep throaty roar leading to a high-pitched whine. It’s another day, another country and the millionaire boys are playing with their favourite toys. Round and round they go, darting in and out like multi-coloured insects engaged in some ancient ritualistic dance.
Bearing the names of their sponsors like proud warriors they automatically draw attention from the small groups gathered on the slopes overlooking the circuit. National flags wave in the breeze and the onlookers express their delight as their favourite drivers pass by. The cars in their distinct livery, each driver locked in his own private race to go ever faster, dance over the tarmac – gold, grey, black, white with a tartan strip and light blue.
The circus continues, and then from the distant pits another sound is heard and the crowd stirs in eager anticipation. A guttural battle cry is followed by a roar of power as the V10 engine propels the car down the pit lane and onto the glistening track. A flash of scarlet as the founder member of Formula One motor racing joins the rest. Anticipation changes to raw passion, and the fans erupt at the sight and sound of the bright red car driven by the supreme warrior himself.
Michael Schumacher is in a Ferrari. Individually enticing, together they are an unbeatable combination of power and emotion. The brilliant German driver in the car that stirs the heart. Among a family of beauties the Ferrari stands head and shoulders above the others. And not just in Formula One. From the boardrooms of Manhattan to the deserts of Africa, owning a Ferrari is the embodiment of many people’s hopes and dreams, something that represents escape, beauty and the good life. It has also transcended the role of being a mere form of transport and become a focus for the emotions of the whole Italian nation. When Ferrari does well the nation dances, when Ferrari does badly the nation cries.
But what is it like to carry the hopes of a nation? To be responsible for the intangible feelings that ebb and flow around the stable of the prancing horse?
Fast forward to 1998. Dateline: 13 September. Place: Monza, home ground of the famous and fanatical tifosi. The scarlet cars screech past the chequered flag, first and second. Schumacher stands on the top step of the podium, Irvine on the next step down. The crowd and the team are delirious. The magical result, not seen at Ferrari in recent history on their home ground, has revitalized everyone involved. It is the sum total of the determination, effort and skill of so many people, and now everyone can rejoice that the hard work has paid off: Schumacher is back in the contest for the 1998 World Drivers’ Championship; and Ferrari are challenging once again for the Constructors’ title. Of course, as history was to decree at the climax of the season in Japan, it would be the runners-up spot yet again for Ferrari and their German wünderkind. But for now, the glory of Monza was something to behold.
At the end of three progressive seasons, the Ferrari renaissance is well underway. Plots and counter-plots are long forgotten. The pace and reliability of a small red car is what matters. Ferrari might make Machiavelli seem like an innocent but it is the only company to have perpetrated the myth of desire for 50 years, the only Formula One team that attracts a passionate, committed army of supporters throughout the world.
We stand on the threshold of a new millennium and we are still transfixed by the power and emotion generated by the need to feel we can be a part of Ferrari, maybe even one day drive one of their cars. We need to be a part of the dream even if, for some of us, that dream is as elusive as scaling Mount Everest. If the emotion is strong on the outside, what is it like on the inside? Let’s take a journey into the heart of the stable of the prancing horse and find out.
Jane Nottage, London, 1998

CHAPTER ONE (#ulink_66317a42-4c25-561f-9d4e-bbb28797f13b)
The Legend Lives On (#ulink_66317a42-4c25-561f-9d4e-bbb28797f13b)
‘Ferrari is motor racing. It is the representation of everything motor racing stands for – speed, glamour, style and excitement.’
Bernie Ecclestone
FOCA President
Once upon a time there lived a man called Enzo Ferrari. He produced beautiful cars, won many World Championships, built a company that became famous throughout the world, resided in a lovely place called Maranello, where the sun always shone and he lived happily ever after. Fairy stories. Wonderful aren’t they? They allow people to dream of a better world and believe that everything is always beautiful. The heroes are always good looking and the future is always full of hope and happiness. Not unlike life at Ferrari, or so most people would have us believe. Over the years the legend has been carefully constructed and perpetuated by the people at the stable of the black prancing horse, to make us believe that Ferrari is the ultimate dream, the legend that delivers your fantasies.
Even the famous emblem is shrouded in mystery. Folklore has it that Enzo Ferrari was enjoying success as an Alfa Romeo driver, when after yet another victorious race a man pushed his way through the crowd that had gathered round the winner, shook Enzo’s hand warmly and invited him back to his house so he could make a presentation. This man was the father of famous World War I flying ace, Francesco Baracca, who had shot down 35 adversaries before his life ended in 1918. As his personal badge, Baracca had used a black prancing horse. After his demise, his family was sent the prancing horse symbol on a piece of aeroplane fabric and it was their wish that this famous emblem should be passed on to Enzo Ferrari in recognition of his courage and talent on the race track.
There is no doubt that Enzo Ferrari was a remarkable man. In 1947 he started to produce and sell road cars to enable him to finance his racing career. He was perceptive enough to realize that if he created exclusivity there would be more demand than supply and so he built up a company that today, as we stand on the threshold of the next millennium, is still the marque that most people dream of owning and driving. He also created a Formula One racing team that has become a legend within the rarefied world of motor racing. Ferrari is a name that is synonymous with glamour, style and power.
However, being a genius who built up an empire from nothing didn’t necessarily make Enzo a wonderful person. People seem to link the two, but most really successful businessmen are single minded, despotic and completely egocentric. Enzo Ferrari was no different. He often treated staff like servants, enjoying his absolute power as leader. He kept racing drivers in their place (bearing in mind the overinflated egos of some of today’s drivers, many would list that as a positive characteristic) and he was hardly a New Man. His wife cannot have had an easy time being married to a legend. He built a house on his test circuit so he could be near to his first love, racing, and know exactly what was going on both with the car and with the team. He fathered an illegitimate child, Piero Lardi, whom he welcomed into the business after his own son died. His wife, naturally, as was the tradition of the times, would have been expected to put up with it all, plus have his dinner ready when he wanted it. He was demanding, selfish and authoritarian, but nevertheless a brilliant man, and in spite of – or maybe because of – his faults, he is always remembered with great affection by people who knew him.
Niki Lauda, who won two World Championships with Ferrari, recalls Enzo Ferrari as a man of extraordinary influence and recounts the strength and mystique surrounding the Ferrari legend. ‘Ferrari has something extra,’ he says. ‘It’s something indefinable and unique, and every time I walked through the doors of the factory at Maranello or stepped into the car, I felt the added importance of being that unique thing – a Ferrari driver. There was, is and always will be a special place in my heart that is reserved for Ferrari.’
Jody Scheckter was also ‘that unique thing’ and won the World Championship for Ferrari in 1979 – the last driver to do so. ‘I think for any driver of any ability to drive for Ferrari is a dream come true,’ he says. ‘It is still the most historic marque in motor racing. The magic of driving for Ferrari is that you’re driving for the whole of Italy, not just the team.’ Nigel Mansell, the last Englishman to drive for Ferrari, says, ‘Driving for Ferrari offers a very special experience. They are true thoroughbred racers, they only want to win and for me the reality was very similar to the dream.’

SHEER POWER
FERRARI HAS ALWAYS BEEN A MAJOR FORCE IN FIA
Behind the romantic mystique and glamour of Ferrari lies sheer, raw power. Formula One is a breeding ground for power but Ferrari is the master. Max Mosley, President of FIA (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, the sport’s governing body based in Paris) explains how Ferrari entered the inner sanctum of Formula One and became the main power broker. ‘Politically, Ferrari has always been a major force in FIA. Until the emergence of British racing in the 1960s, all decisions were made somewhere between Paris and Turin. It was just a question of which year and where the centre of gravity was. The Concorde Agreement (the Maastricht treaty of Formula One) was drawn up in 1980 and 1981, and it has a provision that when Formula One matters are discussed the vote of the President of the Manufacturer’s Commission would be exercised by a representative from the legalist’s side. The legalists were one of two factions which formed in the late 70s and early 80s. It was basically Ferrari, Renault and Alfa Romeo, and the other faction was us, together with the FOCA [Formula One Constructors’ Association] teams.
‘FOCA had a seat on the World Council, and we found a compromise whereby in addition to Formula One having a seat on the World Council, another person who is President of the Manufacturers’ Commission has a seat. He represents the World’s Motor Industry, the big manufacturers. When Formula One matters were discussed, the legalists had their representative and historically this has always been Ferrari.’
Ferrari, in typical Latin fashion, has always been alert to the most imperceptible political currents, and it was this talent that kept it in the thick of things. As Mosley says, ‘In the 70s, when FOCA became powerful, we ended up with FOCA on one side and FIA/FISA on the other, with Ferrari as the fulcrum. It would move a little bit one way and then a little bit the other way, influencing the decisions. Enzo Ferrari was an absolute master of that sort of politics. He wanted to make sure Formula One succeeded, so he nearly always backed Bernie [Ecclestone], as he realized that Bernie was going to make Formula One into something big. However, by moving a bit towards the governing body he could obtain a more favourable position in negotiations, which was a very wise move. Now all the relationships between me, Bernie and Ferrari are very solid.’
So what if, for argument’s sake, someone stood up and said: ‘Well, Williams should be our representative as it has been the most successful team in the last five years,’ or ‘McLaren because it dominated the 80s’? What would happen?
Mosley smiles before replying with certainty. ‘Nothing would happen. It would stay as it is. Ferrari has got one overwhelming advantage and that is it was there on 13 May 1950 (the first Formula One World Championship race) and has continued to be there, and even when it wasn’t winning it has been a tremendous part of Formula One. Now it is right up at the top again. As Chairman Mao said, “Power comes from the barrel of a gun” – although in the case of Formula One power comes from success. If you’re successful and have got tradition, your political position is very strong.’
Mosley also has first-hand experience of Enzo Ferrari’s schoolboy humour. ‘Twice a year all the teams and everyone would go down to visit Ferrari, and we’d all have lunch together. Enzo would always sit Bernie next to him, and when Bernie wasn’t looking he’d slip a large piece of Parmesan cheese on his plate. According to the old man, Parmesan has aphrodisiac qualities, and he’d always say without fail “that will get the little man going”. It always made him crack up right to the end of his life.’
A clever man with a keen nose for politics, Mosley freely admits to being completely seduced by Ferrari. ‘If someone said to me you can have any job in motorsport, I’d choose to run Ferrari. I quite envy Luca [di Montezemolo, the present chairman] his job. I know it would be challenging and difficult, but then all the top jobs are. I have no doubt that it would certainly be the most interesting.’
Bernie Ecclestone, the President of the Formula One Constructors’ Association (FOCA), is the man who has made Formula One an exciting, visually entertaining sport and a business that is a commercial success. Having known Enzo Ferrari so well, he fondly remembers the old man, and Bernie’s trepidation at what might happen after his death in 1988.
‘I have many happy, personal memories of Ferrari as I had a long friendship with the great Enzo, who was always supportive of all I did. When he died I missed him on a personal level, and I also wondered what would happen to Ferrari and if it would continue in the same way. I am delighted to see that the team has followed in the footsteps of tradition and is being run in the same way by the right people, who will ensure that it grows and develops as we enter the next millennium and the 21st century.’

INTO THE FUTURE
GRADUALLY THINGS STARTED TO IMPROVE
The death of the great Enzo Ferrari in 1988 was the end of an era at Ferrari. He had been the creator and motivating force of the car company for over 40 years and now, finally, it was time to take stock and move on towards the 21st century.
When Chief Designer John Barnard left Ferrari for the first time at the end of 1989, Alain Prost nearly won the World Championship the following year in 1990 before the famous coming together with Ayrton Senna at Suzuka effectively lost Prost the Championship.
This prompted Ferrari to appoint a new heir not only to take over the running of the company but also to lead it into the new millennium. The new messiah was Luca di Montezemolo, one of Italy’s brightest international businessmen, who had already achieved success at Ferrari when he was team manager at the time Niki Lauda won two World Championships (1975 and 1977). Early on in his career, Montezemolo had been earmarked for great things by his mentor, Fiat boss Gianni Agnelli and he had moved through the ranks at Fiat. He had also been head of the organizing committee for the football World Cup held in Italy in 1990, before he had been offered the top job at Ferrari in 1992.
As well as being bright and vastly experienced in the realms of international marketing and commerce, Montezemolo was aware of the tradition and history so integral to Ferrari. He was therefore ideally placed to lead the company. It was to be a quiet and dignified revolution as opposed to an outright battle.
Montezemolo’s strategy was to get the best people in the top positions to enable the Formula One team to start winning again after a disappointing 1991 season. One of his first moves was to recapture award-winning designer John Barnard to prepare a competitive car.
Barnard re-joined his old stable on 1 August 1992, and took up the challenge of getting involved in a team that was on the edge of a new renaissance. Like many clever, successful men he was seduced by the thought of getting it right at one of the most difficult, disparate teams in Formula One, and he had enough self-confidence to think he could pull it off. In theory it should have been a happy union between a large budget and a well respected talent. But for the Ferrari–Barnard association to be truly happy it would need serenity, patience and total commitment on both parts and that wasn’t going to be easy.
It started off full of golden promise. Barnard had to gather a new team to work at the new offices in Shalford, Guildford that would effectively be the design centre (Ferrari Design and Development – FDD) for Ferrari Formula One cars. At the same time he was under pressure to produce a new car for 1993. ‘We agreed that I would take an overview and get things up and running. But within days of signing the contract, I was being asked how quickly I could do a new car. I hadn’t even got a building to work from…’
Having secured a slightly cynical but nevertheless brilliant designer and parked him in England to get on and design a new car, Montezemolo continued with his search for the right people. Previous Technical Director Harvey Postlethwaite had been persuaded to return. ‘The first time was wonderful, when I was working for the old man [Enzo Ferrari]. He could be difficult but everyone knew where they stood and he kept it all together by ruling with a rod of iron. The second time was awful. On my first day back in 1992, I realized I had made an awful mistake in being persuaded to return. There was no direction and things changed every five minutes. It was the start of two truly awful years and I couldn’t wait to get out. I used to keep a piece of paper with my salary written on it in the top drawer of my desk; when things got really rough, I would open the drawer, look at the figure and remember the reason I had returned!’ Postlethwaite sums up his feelings by declaring, ‘Ferrari is like a film star with halitosis – from afar it looks glamorous and seductive, but get near and it poisons you.’
Next on Montezemola’s shopping list was Frenchman Jean Todt. Todt is an exceptionally gifted team manager, having led Peugeot to several World Championship titles in sportscars after a successful career as a rally co-driver. He was enjoying his job at Peugeot but wanted the ultimate challenge of Formula One, and when Peugeot declined to compete at that level, he was ready to try new pastures.
A small, Napoleonic character with a severe countenance but an understanding heart, the job of team principal at Ferrari was one challenge Todt was determined to see through to the end and achieve his objectives of bringing structure and organization to a team that sorely needed it.
Team Co-ordinator Nigel Stepney was one of the first to feel the benefit of Todt’s talents. He recalls how he joined Ferrari and the pre- and post-Todt periods. ‘I joined in 1992 and it was the realization of a dream. I had worked with various English teams from 1978, and everyone warned me against going to work for Ferrari.
‘They said, “It’s big, it’s political, you won’t survive.” After that, Ferrari became my number one choice. I love a challenge and it was a personal challenge for me. I thought I’d show a few people what I could do.
‘When I walked through the door, it was like everyone said it was; it was like being thrown into the lion’s den. Harvey Postlethwaite was in charge on the technical side and he put me in a “non” position, so I was there but not there. Once I got through the first year, things got better. The job evolved and I wanted to succeed, so I made it work. But what really turned it round for me was the arrival of Jean Todt at Ferrari at Magny-Cours [for the French Grand Prix] in 1993. When he arrived the whole structure of the place started to change. He picked me up and put me into a position, that of team co-ordinator, with which I knew and could grow. Jean Todt is brilliant at restructuring, and good at giving you support and confidence. If he trusts you and believes in you, he’ll give you support and make you feel strong. That was vital at Ferrari.
‘Before his arrival, it was very easy to feel insecure. Everyone was constantly trying to make you feel insecure, as they were insecure themselves. You expected the knife in your back at any moment. It was like Julius Caesar every day here. The Italians used to bunch together and it was difficult to fit into that structure. But with Todt’s arrival a lot of people were able to start work and have definite responsibilities. It was like a breath of fresh air.’
Gradually things started to improve as Montezemolo created a strategy that was designed to put Ferrari back at the top, where it belonged. But it was to be another year before Ferrari took the last step in its renaissance and employed a World Champion as its driver.
Gerhard Berger and Jean Alesi were the Ferrari drivers at this time and were competent and talented, but their constant bickering did not help the team. The arrival of double World Champion Michael Schumacher from Benetton would change all that.
When Schumacher won his first World Championship in 1994, he dedicated it to Ayrton Senna, ‘the man who should have won it’. Strangely enough, it should have been Senna who joined Ferrari in 1996, not Schumacher. Former Ferrari Press Officer Giancarlo Baccini says, ‘Senna had always wanted to drive for Ferrari. Before he went to Williams he came and talked to us. We told him we weren’t ready for him. We just weren’t able to provide him with the car and facilities he needed. He was brilliant but also demanding and it would have broken the team to have a champion at that time. We told him to wait for a couple of years and then we would be ready. That would have been the 1996 season. He agreed and we continued to rebuild the team. But destiny decreed otherwise. That is not to say Schumacher was second choice. He is absolutely a world-class driver, and who knows if Senna would have joined us or not. The initial discussions with Senna were before Schumacher won his first World Championship and emerged as one of the all-time greats.’
The arrival of the brilliant German driver was almost the final piece of the jigsaw in the rebuilding of the team (Ross Brawn would arrive as technical director in December of 1996 and Rory Byrne as chief designer in January 1997). Montezemolo chose the moment carefully before taking on a driver who would demand the best in everything, and was also capable of giving the best.
At the launch of the 1996 car, the energetic Italian was full of optimism and determination. ‘Just as a football team doesn’t expect to win a major title immediately the team restructures, we have the same philosophy of making steady progress towards our target of winning the World Championship.

MARANELLO: HOME TO FERRARI
In Maranello, it is impossible to escape the influence of Ferrari. No one is untouched, and Maranello has become like an extended family of the high-profile car company. When the prancing horse is unwell, the whole town is quiet and subdued, but when it is first past the winning post, the crescendo of noisy celebration is deafening.
The Ferrari factory straddles the main road and is as much a part of the Italian way of life as eating and praying. In fact much of Ferrari’s history and tradition is centred on two restaurants: Il Cavallino and Il Montana. Enzo Ferrari had his own room at Il Cavallino, where he could entertain in privacy (a tradition that is handed down to every chairman) and Il Montana was host to the drivers when they came to town. The walls are littered with signed photographs and pieces of paper from the sons of Ferrari, those drivers and personnel who all became part of the legend.

‘Three years ago we were two seconds off the pace of the best cars; now we are up among the best. By having Schumacher as our Number One driver we are demonstrating to the world that we are prepared to do everything possible to win. Also we feel ready to make the final leap to success. If we didn’t feel ready, then we wouldn’t have brought the best driver in the world into the team.’
A double World Champion at only 26 years of age, Schumacher was emerging as one of the best drivers of his generation. Ferrari knew it would have to pay for the best, and did so to the tune of $25 million. But as John Barnard says, ‘When Ferrari signed Schumacher it was like they opened another piggy bank. Suddenly money was no object. You need a new machine? Buy it. Expand, employ the people you need and so on. It was a surprise as for the last three years we’d been told to hang tight, cut back, think before spending any extra money. Suddenly all that changed.’
Fortunately, when he met the press for the first time as a Ferrari driver, Schumacher didn’t repeat the mistake he made in his first press conference. When asked what his father did, he replied with a straight face, ‘He likes screwing.’ For once, the hacks were rendered speechless, until it was explained that in German a screw is a carpenter, someone who likes playing around with wood!

THE FINAL PIECES
ON 15 FEBRUARY 1996 THE NEW FERRARI F1 CAR WAS UNVEILED
Another vital ingredient to the rebuilding of Ferrari was the return of Shell as a Ferrari partner, along with fellow sponsors Philip Morris, Asprey, Magneti Marelli, Telecom Italia, Goodyear and Pioneer.
The red hot passion of Ferrari combined with the cool, clinical, technical expertise of Shell is a forceful combination. Fuels and lubricants are a vital aspect of improving performance. In-depth research and development at the Shell Research and Technology Centre at Thornton in Cheshire, has led to a far more efficient and powerful engine. The engine was to be an important factor in Ferrari’s return to the top.
Completing the dawn of a new era for the Italian car giants, on 15 February 1996 the new Ferrari Formula One car was unveiled and presented to the international media. More than half a million people logged on to the Internet to follow the presentation ceremony. There was much hope and optimism that finally the tide was turning in favour of the stable of the prancing horse.


The passion of winning, the pain of losing. Ferrari has known both. But what is it about the red racers that continues to entice and seduce? Above all, what is it like to be a part of the team that is part of Formula One folklore? Let’s take a journey through the Schumacher era, 1996–98, and find out.

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