Rumour has it that Ferrari, in dire Formula One straits right now, are primed to offer voluntarily redundant genius Ross Brawn a salary of his own choosing to return to the scene with them to instigate an urgent revival.
Brawn stamped his hallmark on the Mercedes Silver Arrow before packing it all in to go fishing on the basis, I believe, of his dissatisfaction with a surprising new arrangement of bosses within the German team.
The virtual ignominy of a Flying Horse’s outfit reduced from a triumphant gallop of yesteryear to a trot now among the also-rans contrasts starkly with the upsurge of Mercedes in a title takeover that looks set to run and run. That is all down not only to the superior driving of title pacemaker Lewis Hamilton and runner-up Nico Rosberg, but to the legacy of Brawn’s masterminding skills when it comes down to planning,development and clear thinking in the long rather than the short term.
The blushes must have plentiful in Spain last Sunday when Ferrari stugglers Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen, both ex-champions, agonised behind the wheel of a ponderously performing distant challenger. The Spanish two-time champion was only two seconds from being lapped and the gloomy Finn had already fallen into that embarrassing situation without the remotest hope of fending it off. Alonso afterwards warned that the superlative Mercedes could win every grand prix.
The discontent at Ferrari was aired, I am told, at their Maranello headquarters after their pathetic Barcelona blow-out of even their slight threat to the frontrunners with incomer Raikkonen protesting he refuses to be ordered to play second fiddle to Alonso in orchestrated finishes.
That was likely to be an accompanying problem, I believe and said so, even before the pair were made teammates. It has come to pass and with the situation getting no better despite their hopes for improvement in Spain I can visualise only crisis for the Italian legends and further disappointment and heartache for their gigantic global fan base.
Ferrari’s all-powerful chief, Luca di Montezemolo, is not an authority to whom you would risk giving advice — but he needs to rapidly recruit somebody who may be able to reverse the backward direction in which his team is travelling. And that man is Brawn, a saviour of a personality with skill, drive, ambition and ideas to spare. A wasted talent at the moment worth his weight in gold.
The alliance of his engineering excellence,with seven world titles as proof, and the interpretive skills of the two Mercedes drivers are proof that it could all be recreated at Ferrari with Alonso and Raikkonen. Multi-millionaire Brawn is more than likely right now to be the lone figure sitting, fishing rod in hand, on the bankside of a tranquil river anywhere in the world or at the stern end of an ocean-going yacht tempting sea bed dwellers.
But really, he himself is the big fish. And Montezemolo would be a wise man to cast him an irresistibly tempting bait.
I hope my forthrightness will be forgiven, though I fear not, but Ferrari’s ruler should personally pen a handwritten letter or postcard, send a telegram, telephone, e-mail, use sempaphore or morse code, jungle drums, bongoes, parachute in a mailman, fly a sky sign or whatever communication is needed with the plea: Come and join us. PLEASE!
- The author is a motorsport expert based in the UK
