Domenicali out to prove nice guys don't finish last

Sepang: By common consent Stefano Domenicali is one of Formula One's nice guys: polite, affable, approachable.

The 44-year-old also happens to be the team principal of Ferrari, the most renowned marque in the sport.

There are those, fewer these days, within the paddock who consider the relationship doomed; who argue that, by definition, you cannot be a good bloke and run a 400-strong race team,.

Domenicali is doing his best to prove that nice guys don't finish last in F1.

Make no mistake, 12 months ago, when Kimi Raikkonen was filmed in the Sepang paddock chomping on a choc ice dressed in shorts and flip flops while a rain-interrupted Malaysian Grand Prix was still technically in session, the question marks mounted.

The car was a dud, the team had made a couple of high-profile strategic errors ,and unfavourable parallels were starting to be drawn with Domenicali's predecessor, the disciplinarian Jean Todt.

The implication was that, much like Martin Whitmarsh at McLaren, Ferrari's main man since 2008 was too young and too nice. Fast forward 12 months and a very different picture has emerged.

Ferrari exude calm; they have replaced Raikkonen with his polar opposite in Fernando Alonso; built what appears to be the most consistent car on the grid; managed a one-two in the season opener in Bahrain.

In his air-conditioned office, Domenicali smiles and shakes his head. "Last year was a very difficult season for many reasons," he says.

"There was a lot of discussion about how the team was not good, that we were not up to the standard that Ferrari must have. Well, I think there is no need to speak to say something."

Indeed not. Actions speak louder than words and the decision to forget 2009 and concentrate on the 2010 car appears to have paid dividends.

Domenicali rejigged his back bench efficiently and then dealt with Felipe Massa's crash in Hungary last summer with genuine dignity and warmth. "The one thing I was able to do was to keep the pressure on my shoulders," he says.

"To make sure that people under me at all levels were able to perform in the way they were supposed to.

"Wherever we are at the end of this season, we have proved that we did the right thing last year. Stopping the development of the car in the summertime was not easy.

"However, we have done nothing apart from winning the first race and being in a good position. But at least we are back and in fighting mode, as Ferrari must be."