MONZA : "RED DEAD" REDEMPTION

GEOMOTORSPORT.ID - Scuderia Ferrari, when we hear that name, it reminds us about bright red sports cars with excessive horsepower. Scuderia Ferrari of Maranello is the oldest surviving and most successful Formula 1 team since 1950. You may  be wondering why i labelled them THE MOST SUCCESSFUL TEAM when in fact their recent run of bad forms prove otherwise? Let’s say we ask a non-motorsports fan about Formula 1, of course most of them the first thing that come to their mind is a Ferrari! That is to say that most people often affiliated Ferrari with Formula One.

Throughout the history of the team, there are a lot of legendary drivers such as Niki Lauda, Kimi Räikkönen and Alberto Ascari but Michael Schumacher is regarded as the most successful driver as during his stint at the club after joining from Benetton between 1996 and 2005 as he won five drivers’ title between 2000-2004 plus those period between 1999 and 2004 was the most successful in their history as they won six constructors’ titles and 5 drivers’ title courtesy of Michael Schumacher.

Amidst being known as the most successful F1 team, Scuderia Ferrari struggled to keep up their success and performance after Schumi’s retirement. Since then, the only time they won is during the 2007 World Constructors’ Championship and Drivers’ Championship with Kimi Räikkönen and 2008 Constructors’ Championship - *sigh* alas, it is their last one. Since Räikkönen’s first title with the team in 2007, Scuderia Ferrari narrowly lost out on the 2008 Drivers’ title with Felipe Massa and 2010 and 2012 Drivers’ title with Fernando Alonso.

October 2014, Red Bull Racing announced that their talisman Sebastian Vettel famous dubbed as “Baby Schumi”, the four-time world champions will fill in Scuderia Ferrari’s hot seat after the departure of Fernando Alonso to Mclaren-Honda. It gives a glimpse of hope to the rest of the Tifosis that the team will dominate once again. Ironically, Sebastian is given Schumi’s number Five and his first win came during the Malaysia Grand Prix thus ending Scuderia Ferrari’s 34 winless streak.

Fast forward to 2017, Scuderia Ferrari won their first race of the season during the Bahrain GP courtesy to Sebastian Vettel after scoring no wins during the 2016 season. During the 2017 season, “The Prancing Horse” showing to their eager and seriousness to challenge for the both Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championship once again and wanted to challenge Mercedes AMG Petronas who has been dominating the F1 world since 2014. Unfortunately, Scuderia Ferrari struggled with their forms after the summer break and seems to bottle up their pursuit to win both championships especially due to the significant collision between Sebastian Vettel, Max Verstappen and Kimi Räikkönen thus letting Lewis Hamilton who started the race at fifth place leading the race and lastly winning the race thus letting Mercedes bags more points. That unfortunate accident surely costed the team title and crushed their hope to win their first championship in NINE YEARS!

Things went same again next season as Scuderia Ferrari finished second with 84 points away from Mercedes and Sebastian became runner-up in the Drivers’ Championship – again those triggering fans and pundits to blame him for blundering throughout the season thus letting both him and the team suffer two disappointments in challenging the title for two consecutive years.

In 2019 season, Scuderia Ferrari having a wind of change as Mattia Binotto the team’s chief technical officer replacing Maurizio Arrivabene as the team principal and “Ice Man” that are going to Sauber, which is now Alfa Romeo a team that are affiliated to Ferrari are replaced by Monegesque hot shot rookie, Charles Leclerc for which he is part of the Ferrari Driver Academy. That season went worst as the team only won three GP’s at Belgium, Italy and USA. Despite having their worst season for the first time in 3 years, that season are deserve to be recognized as they won at Monza for the first time in 9 years!

Autodromo Naziole d’ Monza have a special place in the heart of the team and the Tifosis as it is their home and winning there will be special. Every year, the Tifosi will enliven the Gran Premio d’ Italia with huge flag of Ferrari and a sea of red filling the grandstand. For the past few seasons, Scuderia Ferrari had been beaten and struggling at their own home until last year, the team at last grab a first place in the race, thanks to an amazing performance by Charles Leclerc who won his second race in a row with the team in his debut season. Bear in mind that since the Monza victory the team seems like showing their high determination in the remaining races to finish strong amidst only manage to finish second the Constructors’ Championship. As an example, the team won 2 pole positions and 2 fastest lap at Russian GP, Mexican GP and US GP respectively. These showing that the win at their home soil meant something big to the team and manage to be a morale booster for the team who is having downfall as Charles become the first Ferrari driver to win at Monza since Fernando Alonso in 2010.

Overall, it can be said that “home advantage” is no longer a myth anymore as we also can witness the phenomenon of home advantage in other sports such as football where in 2017, FC Barcelona went into the quarter-final of the UEFA Champions League after beating Paris Saint Germain with six goals to one who won 4-0 in the first leg at Paris. As a Tifosi myself, I  hope Scuderia Ferrari at the very least scores a podium finish or perhaps a win in this week Gran Premio d’ Italia although the team is currently facing a crisis however I believe a win or a podium finish is enough to become a bonfire that will ignite the spirits of the Prancing Horse. (geomotorsport.id/Aiman)