It's Time to Clean the Stables
	by Biranit Goren, Israel

1998 was not a good year for the fans of Michael Schumacher and Ferrari. The Italian team, which has more wins than any other Formula One team, has been unsuccessful in grabbing the Drivers' Championship for almost two decades now and is certainly nowhere near achieving the Constructors' Championship title. To that end, the team signed Michael Schumacher - today's best F1 driver and double World Champion - and even paid him an unprecedented salary, second only to Michael Jordan's amongst the world's sportsmen. For two consecutive years now, Schumacher - a "Wunderkind" that grew up into Ayrton Senna's heir both in achievements and in the line of scandals he trails behind him - almost brings Ferrari to the throne. For two consecutive years, though, it slips through his fingers at the very last minute. While endless speculations could be made as to why Schumacher lost it twice in a row, it should be noted that if he ever came close to having a fair chance of winning the title, it stands to his credit and his alone; what he lost, was never really his to win. But after a partnership of three years between the Italians and the German, the title should have been theirs. Instead, in a year where Schumacher won six races and the team earned 133 championship points - more than they ever had - the championship was still out of their reach; the British McLaren team, perhaps Ferrari's greatest rival since the beginning of the '70s, presented at the first race of the year a car so superior, there was little doubt the championship would be theirs. And then, watching Ferrari and Schumacher bite off this superiority race after race until they virtually matched it, was no more than a vain hope, a false pretence. At the end of the day, Ferrari missed it again. Not the best driver, not the largest budget, not the biggest fan-club, not Bernie Ecclestone's support and not lady-luck - none of those stood for Ferrari in a sport that proves yet again to be a technology battle first and foremost. To much extent, Ferrari - with all its record amount of testing and car development during the season - resembles Ben Johnson on drugs (though not to allude they were cheating; they simply were more "enhanced" than any other team). Only Johnson broke the World Record. Ferrari still came home second. Three years ago, when Schumacher was signed with Ferrari, the Maranello team's president Luca di Montezemolo said that he expects them to win the Championship within three years. More significantly, di Montezemolo added that if they don't do this with the best driver in the world on board, then they'll know they failed. Well, to put it simply: Ferrari failed. And it's much harder being a fan of a team that is "almost-there" all the time, than being a fan of a team that never had the chance to win the title to begin with. It is especially hard being a fan of Ferrari in a year that saw the prancing horse achieve its best results ever, as even this was not enough to land the Championship title. In the last couple of years the title went to Williams, certainly the best F1 car of the '90s. Truth be said - and I won't be the first to say it - even a monkey could have won in that car. This year, in a different excellent car won an excellent driver - Finland's Mika Hakkinen - and Schumacher's fans cannot console themselves by saying that the best car has beaten the best driver; that their driver is the best, he just had a bad car. At the bottom line, in the last race, when the checkered flag was dropped - the winner was not a monkey and his car was not that much better than the F300. In other words, Ferrari were not the underdogs this year. They were simply the losers. Schumacher and his people should be sitting now and figuring out what exactly they did wrong and how come they have yet to do their job right. A good place to start the soul-searching with should be the winter of 1997, when the team insisted on testing solely at their private tracks, thus not evaluating correctly just how far off they are from their main opposition. Making progress throughout the year is important, not doubt, but in almost every single Championship in the last decade the title was taken by the team that was superior from day one, not from the second half of the season. Another place to look at would certainly be their attitude. As Niki Lauda recently pointed out, the people of Ferrari are quick to console themselves with the "almost-there" result. Neither Schumacher nor Ferrari can afford to think that second place is any better than third or fourth for that matter. In many ways - and certainly for them - it's worse. And it will be worse if they think it was simply a matter of luck. Luck had nothing to do with it - they failed this year and only a recognition of that, along with understanding of where exactly they made mistakes, could hand Ferrari the chance to finally get the job right. For three years, Ferrari's fans hear the promise coming from Maranello - "Next year we'll be the champs." For three years we've been proved wrong. Next year, the 1999 season, is their last chance to appease their fans. And even that is one chance too many.

Biranit Goren	© 1998 Atlas Formula One Journal.
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