Will Ferrari's invisible hand work in Monza?
When an Italian motor vehicle designer sits down to sketch his vision of a new supercar, he thinks first of the most beautiful woman he could possibly imagine walking into his studio at that very moment, slowly peeling her clothes off and then passionately kissing him. A German designer by contrast thinks first of strength: rippling muscles, firm jaws, large fists and a booming voice. While an M5 in your rear view mirror looks like it may swallow you whole if you do not do as it commands and move over, a Ferrari brings tears of love into your eyes and implores you to move over, the better to watch it glide swiftly by. The BMW will roar when you press the throttle and declare “Du solltert dich besser nicht mit mir anlegen!” (“I will thump you if you mess with me!”). The Ferrari will do nothing of the kind. Instead she will purr and sweetly say “Ciao! Ti piace quello che sto indossando?” (“Hi! Do you like what I am wearing?”) Is it any surprise then that Italy is the home of the supercar?
Before her mother tried to kill me with Emiliano-Romagnolo cooking [I wrote about this last year], Bianca was explaining the passion Italians feel for cars, motor racing and Ferrari. She relayed a tale which I found fascinating. In the 1960s, the Lamborghini car company commissioned design work for a successor to the legendary Lamborghini Miura. When the chief designer saw the designs for the new car, he was so taken by its beauty and elegance that he exclaimed “Countach!”. And that is how the Lamborghini Countach earned its extraordinary name.
“But what does ‘Countach’ mean?” I asked Bianca.
“It is slang from Piedmont in the north west of Italy where I am from. It’s an expression of extreme appreciation or astonishment at the sight of a gorgeous woman,” she said.
“You mean like the British football hooligan yelp of ‘Phwoahhhhr!’?
Bianca blushed. “Exactly,” she said quietly.
Beauty and racing go together in Italy. It is for this reason that Ferrari began life not as a car company but as a racing team. Enzo Ferrari loathed selling cars but he needed to do so to raise the finances for his racing team’s survival. It is from these roots that Ferrari has grown to be more than just a well recognised vehicle. Ferrari is almost a religion around the world. More fans are attracted to Formula One by the spirit of Ferrari than anything else. Go to any Formula One circuit anywhere in the world and you will encounter a sea of red in the terraces. For the Ferrari fan base it’s more than a racing thing, it’s a love thing.
This goes a long way to explaining why it is obvious that the powers that be in Formula One never want to upset Ferrari. Upsetting Ferrari would for them be akin to killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. It is, therefore, a crude sense of survival that causes decision makers to stretch every sinew to assist Ferrari when things are not going the way Ferrari want them to go. If a loophole can be found within the rules to assist Ferrari in avoiding censure, it will be found. If by bashing a team – even unfairly if necessary – Ferrari will gain a useful advantage, that team will surely be soundly bashed. If there is a driver from any team impeding the progress of a Ferrari driver, that driver will be hobbled. The objective is to have the speakers ringing out “Tantarara, tantarara, tantarara tantarara!” throughout the circuit at the end of every racing afternoon. Questions will be asked if the self same speakers are playing “God save the Queen” when something could have been found within the FIA rule book which could have prevented it. This is the philosophy which informed the madness we saw last Sunday. One of the best finishes to a Grand Prix was ruined by three spineless stewards hoping to be invited to a cosy dinner in Maranello.
The perplexing irony of this is what I mentioned earlier: Ferrari is primarily a racing team. Racing is part of its DNA. Mercedes, BMW, Renault, Honda and Toyota are all volume manufacturers of road cars who use Formula One as the ultimate means of advertising their normal cars. Ferrari does not need to do this. You can’t just walk into a shop and buy a Ferrari. No way! The best you could hope for if you wanted a brand new Ferrari F430 today and had sufficient funds at your disposal would be to persuade a person near the top of the long waiting list to sell you his slot. So, if Ferrari is all about racing why the devil does it need assistance from the FIA?
I have puzzled over this for some time. The answer came to me as I was leafing through an old copy of the ultimate Economics text book The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith the other day. Smith spoke of an invisible hand guiding society towards an end which was never the intention of the individuals living within the society. For much of the time Ferrari do not consciously seek the assistance of others; it just comes their way as if by magic! Ferrari did not protest Lewis Hamilton’s overtaking manoeuvre on Kimi Raikkonen on Sunday. And anyway, since Raikkonen crashed out of the race shortly after the incident, no harm was caused to him or to anyone. Nevertheless, the stewards of their own volition, without prompting and having consumed no whisky, chose to examine the incident repeatedly hours after the race was over and the Ferrari lorries were pulling out of Spa. What inspired them? Was it the fear of Hamilton getting too far ahead of Massa? Was it a desire to piss McLaren off so much that they would still be off-colour a week later and Ferrari could then enjoy a one-two finish at their home Grand Prix? Was it visceral hatred of the English? What?
What has happened as we prepare ourselves for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, the fastest circuit on the calendar, is that the world championship is now within the grasp of an erratic Brazilian man called Felipe Massa. The chap has sometimes demonstrated flashes of brilliance but I do not think he is world championship material. Reigning world champion, Kimi Raikkonen, is a far better rounded driver but he has lost interest in this year’s championship and looks like he would much rather it were over. If the six points the FIA robbed Hamilton of and gifted Massa with end up handing the championship to the Brazilian, Formula One will look extremely ridiculous and will, undoubtedly, lose a lot of fans. Is this really what the FIA wants?
Let us hope we have a repeat of Monza 2007. Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton managed a superb one-two for McLaren with Hamilton humiliatingly overtaking both Ferraris in the race. Lewis, the only way you’re going to win this thing is by making sure the bastards can’t catch you!
Enjoy Monza!
Gitau
11 September 2008
Before her mother tried to kill me with Emiliano-Romagnolo cooking [I wrote about this last year], Bianca was explaining the passion Italians feel for cars, motor racing and Ferrari. She relayed a tale which I found fascinating. In the 1960s, the Lamborghini car company commissioned design work for a successor to the legendary Lamborghini Miura. When the chief designer saw the designs for the new car, he was so taken by its beauty and elegance that he exclaimed “Countach!”. And that is how the Lamborghini Countach earned its extraordinary name.
“But what does ‘Countach’ mean?” I asked Bianca.
“It is slang from Piedmont in the north west of Italy where I am from. It’s an expression of extreme appreciation or astonishment at the sight of a gorgeous woman,” she said.
“You mean like the British football hooligan yelp of ‘Phwoahhhhr!’?
Bianca blushed. “Exactly,” she said quietly.
Beauty and racing go together in Italy. It is for this reason that Ferrari began life not as a car company but as a racing team. Enzo Ferrari loathed selling cars but he needed to do so to raise the finances for his racing team’s survival. It is from these roots that Ferrari has grown to be more than just a well recognised vehicle. Ferrari is almost a religion around the world. More fans are attracted to Formula One by the spirit of Ferrari than anything else. Go to any Formula One circuit anywhere in the world and you will encounter a sea of red in the terraces. For the Ferrari fan base it’s more than a racing thing, it’s a love thing.
This goes a long way to explaining why it is obvious that the powers that be in Formula One never want to upset Ferrari. Upsetting Ferrari would for them be akin to killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. It is, therefore, a crude sense of survival that causes decision makers to stretch every sinew to assist Ferrari when things are not going the way Ferrari want them to go. If a loophole can be found within the rules to assist Ferrari in avoiding censure, it will be found. If by bashing a team – even unfairly if necessary – Ferrari will gain a useful advantage, that team will surely be soundly bashed. If there is a driver from any team impeding the progress of a Ferrari driver, that driver will be hobbled. The objective is to have the speakers ringing out “Tantarara, tantarara, tantarara tantarara!” throughout the circuit at the end of every racing afternoon. Questions will be asked if the self same speakers are playing “God save the Queen” when something could have been found within the FIA rule book which could have prevented it. This is the philosophy which informed the madness we saw last Sunday. One of the best finishes to a Grand Prix was ruined by three spineless stewards hoping to be invited to a cosy dinner in Maranello.
The perplexing irony of this is what I mentioned earlier: Ferrari is primarily a racing team. Racing is part of its DNA. Mercedes, BMW, Renault, Honda and Toyota are all volume manufacturers of road cars who use Formula One as the ultimate means of advertising their normal cars. Ferrari does not need to do this. You can’t just walk into a shop and buy a Ferrari. No way! The best you could hope for if you wanted a brand new Ferrari F430 today and had sufficient funds at your disposal would be to persuade a person near the top of the long waiting list to sell you his slot. So, if Ferrari is all about racing why the devil does it need assistance from the FIA?
I have puzzled over this for some time. The answer came to me as I was leafing through an old copy of the ultimate Economics text book The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith the other day. Smith spoke of an invisible hand guiding society towards an end which was never the intention of the individuals living within the society. For much of the time Ferrari do not consciously seek the assistance of others; it just comes their way as if by magic! Ferrari did not protest Lewis Hamilton’s overtaking manoeuvre on Kimi Raikkonen on Sunday. And anyway, since Raikkonen crashed out of the race shortly after the incident, no harm was caused to him or to anyone. Nevertheless, the stewards of their own volition, without prompting and having consumed no whisky, chose to examine the incident repeatedly hours after the race was over and the Ferrari lorries were pulling out of Spa. What inspired them? Was it the fear of Hamilton getting too far ahead of Massa? Was it a desire to piss McLaren off so much that they would still be off-colour a week later and Ferrari could then enjoy a one-two finish at their home Grand Prix? Was it visceral hatred of the English? What?
What has happened as we prepare ourselves for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, the fastest circuit on the calendar, is that the world championship is now within the grasp of an erratic Brazilian man called Felipe Massa. The chap has sometimes demonstrated flashes of brilliance but I do not think he is world championship material. Reigning world champion, Kimi Raikkonen, is a far better rounded driver but he has lost interest in this year’s championship and looks like he would much rather it were over. If the six points the FIA robbed Hamilton of and gifted Massa with end up handing the championship to the Brazilian, Formula One will look extremely ridiculous and will, undoubtedly, lose a lot of fans. Is this really what the FIA wants?
Let us hope we have a repeat of Monza 2007. Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton managed a superb one-two for McLaren with Hamilton humiliatingly overtaking both Ferraris in the race. Lewis, the only way you’re going to win this thing is by making sure the bastards can’t catch you!
Enjoy Monza!
Gitau
11 September 2008
posted by Gitau at 4:27 pm
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