Ferrari looks on the bright-side of its dissapointing 2012 F1 season

There was an interesting post made on Ferrari’s magazine blog this afternoon entitled, ‘History dictates that growth will come’.

In the piece Antonio Ghini, Ferrari’s former Brand and Communications Director provides his response to the question ‘What point on the performance curve are the 2013 single-seaters?’

Here’s what he says:

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Let’s look at just one example: when we were kids, we all made paper aeroplanes. When you throw them, they start off slow and then gather speed, balance in flight, before eventually floating back to earth again.

our closest competitors may well find themselves at that point in the curve where it begins to slope downwards..

It’s a bit like that with racing cars. They are born, go through a shakedown period, grow and develop. They stay competitive for a few years, then their performance gradually wanes and they make their exit from the scene.

Look back at the days of the 312 T, driven by Lauda and Scheckter, and you’ll see what I mean. When that car got past its early stages, it was so fast it was unbeatable. The same thing happened during the Schumacher era with Rory Byrne’s single-seaters which went all the way from ’98-’99 to Räikkönen’s world title.

Beautiful curves that gradually petered downwards. The F2012, which made its debut in late January, proved in the course of the just-finished season that it had potential but had not yet reached its peak.

The big hope now is that it will develop as successfully as we are all expecting, not forgetting that our closest competitors may well find themselves at that point in the curve where it begins to slope downwards..

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This follows Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo’s demand that the team undertake a full analysis of its organisation and practices to ensure it doesn’t repeat the mistakes that cost it the 2012 F1 title.

In an interview published on autosport.com, Montezemolo said “What happened this year stems from what happened the previous year,.. On this topic, I will be asking for an in-depth analysis and an improvement in the organisation and work methods, because next year, we want to have a winning car right from the first race, which has not been the case these last two years.”

Despite Montezemolo’s criticism of the team, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso led the driver’s championship for ten of the twenty races – more than any other driver, finishing the season just four points behind eventual champion, Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel.

Perhaps that’s the reason for such introspection. As Montezemolo looks over his team’s 2012 season performance, all he will see is what might have been, and that’s what makes them a very real threat in 2013.

“Never give up” is Alonso’s motto, and on that, he and the team seem to be in complete agreement.