Oliver WhiteIt’s official folks! Ross Brawn – the technical expert and tactician behind some of the teams great wins in recent years – has decided to leave the Scuderia to focus his attention on his family. Paulo Martinelli will also leave the team, having designed some of the most powerful and most reliable engines to have ever been placed in a Ferrari. Paulo will move his engineering skills to Ferrari’s parent company, Fiat.
While this news isn’t so much of a shock, it is potentially devastating for Ferrari. Combined with the loss of Michael Schumacher, you couldn’t blame someone for asking, ‘Where are Ferrari heading in the next five or so years?‘.
Mario Almondo will take over from where Brawn leaves at the end of the year, and Aldo Costa will continue to head up the design side. Martinelli’s post will be taken by Giles Simon and Stefano Domenicali becomes the teams Sporting Director. I will offer brief bio’s of each key team member in the 2007 Build Up posts, but initial thoughts on the new team structure…
…The car had better be good, and Kimi had better be on form. Or am I being too pessimistic? Will Ferrari flop because of the changes made, or will Kimi rise above everything and thrash Alonso next year? Have your say…
Ok… no Spyker then… LOL! 😉
But you might indeed wonder if this isn’t all a bit too much. It’s not likely that Alonso will win next year but this way Kimi doesn’t have much of a chance either. So it will Button then next year?
I believe Button could do it, but the car would have to be fantastic – something Honda can do, but recently it has been a bit ‘hit-and-miss’.
I also think Alonso could win, and McLaren are due a comeback, but then so are Williams! The Ferrari car will be strong as it was developed largely through this season, but my concern would be the strength of the team, the ability to sort things out that aren’t going right through the season, and the tactical side of the races.
Could BMW take another big step up the ranks next year?