It's a cold, freezing winter. And it wants to stay that way, even if temperatures are expected to rise this week. But the weather is one thing and the climate in Maranello is another. The 676 is being born in the Sports Management: since the beginning of the new year all has been quiet in the Scuderia. There is absolute silence. And not that there is pessimism in the season that is about to begin, but a bit of fear. Fear of repeating last year, when the wait for the SF-23 was accompanied by an expectation that had become spasmodic.
The arrival of Fred Vasseur at the helm of the Cavallino team, the wind tunnel numbers that gave the red car as a possible contender for the title, had fueled an expectation and an exaggerated confidence which was then not matched in the performance of the single-seater driven by Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.
Last year's presentation at Fiorano, on Valentine's Day, seemed designed specifically to reconcile the Scuderia fans with Ferrari. A warm, immersive hug in your living room: sponsors, journalists, television, super-fans and gatecrashers. The launch of the SF-23 had become an event not to be missed. Maranello, center of the world. A general mobilization that led to occupying every centimeter of the network at the edges of the track to witness those 15 km that the FIA grants as the first cry of a new car.
Everything beautiful, everything perfect except the redhead who betrayed expectations. Wrong car, uphill start to the championship. It was enough to observe the pilots' gaze to understand that something wasn't right. We had to arrive in Singapore, after the illusion of Monza, to savor the joy of victory, to interrupt the triumphal march of Max Verstappen and the Red Bull RB19.
Photo by: Ferrari
Frederic Vasseur, Ferrari Team Principal
Fred Vasseur has not forgotten that lesson. In fact he metabolised it. Already at the Christmas lunch with the international press the Frenchman had seemed very modest. Now the team principal wanted to create a real break. Fiorano yes, presentation yes, but behind closed doors.
On February 13th Ferrari will remove the veils from the 676 as if COVID were still there. The sponsors are in (and rightly so), everyone else is out, including television. Meetings with managers, technicians and pilots will be virtual: 20-minute sessions via Zoom. The car will be seen in the photos: it will not be the one that will debut in the tests in Bahrain, but the one at the 200 km filming day to be held in Fiorano.
Ferrari raises the wall. She seeks a low profile, fears illusions and decides to lock herself in the fort. Obviously everyone must be free to behave as they believe in their own home, but there will be a middle ground between last year's (amazing) show and the fear of confrontation. We will find out if it will be a sign of strength or great weakness.
F1 needs a strong, competitive Ferrari that can once again become a challenger, if not exactly a winner. That's the goal.
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