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
