Red With Envy: Ferrari Reliability Could Hurt Title Chances

“In order to finish first, you must first finish.” It is a saying that permeates through any form of auto racing and means that no race can be won if you don’t at least finish.

One thing Scuderia Ferrari became known for during the Michael Schumacher era was unprecedented reliability. When his engine infamously began to spout smoke at Suzuka in 2006, it marked the first time Schumacher had a mechanical failure since 2001 at Hockenheim, over five years previously.

However, in this season, reliability woes have hit the Maranello outfit in a form we’re not used to seeing.

Neither of the scarlet cars finished the season opener in Melbourne because of mechanical failures. Felipe Massa was poised for a dominant win at the Hungaroring…until his engine coughed its last breath with handful of laps left. Kimi Raikkonen was handed a similar fate this past weekend at Valencia.

For the record, each failure at Hungary and Valencia came on the engine’s second race.

To make matters worse, Mclaren appear to have solved the reliability woes that plagued them through the first part of this millennium.

To date, Lewis Hamilton’s non-points scoring finishes (Sakhir, Montreal, and Magny Cours) have been the result of driver error (albeit laughable driver error), not mechanical failure.

The same can be said of Heikki Kovalainen, whose poor finishes have been the result of bad luck or contact (the exceptions being Barcelona and Monaco).

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote that the Constructor’s title was all but sewn up, as Ferrari held a commanding lead.

However, with both Mclarens now regularly in the points and with at least one Ferrari not finishing the past two races, the margin is now down to eight points.

What could be causing Ferrari to have such reliability troubles?

The answer could possibly be found in a couple of different places.

First, the almighty brain power of Jean Todt and Ross Brawn are no longer with team. Todt is currently enjoying retirement, while Brawn is attempting to rebuild Honda’s woeful Formula One project.

While the likes of Stefano Dominelli may be certainly capable of managing a team, how talented are they at producing a car that will finish races without any doubts? Apparently, not as much as Todt and Brawn according to the last two races (which have spoken very loudly).

Another answer could lie in defending world driving champion: Kimi Raikkonen.

We all know that Raikkonen is all but accepted as the fastest driver in Formula One.

However, what cost does that tremendous speed come by?

In 2003, The Iceman would have beaten Michael Schumacher to the championship…had his engine not failed at the Nurburgring, a race would have certainly gone on to win.

In 2005, he had failures at Imola and Hockenheim (while leading) and had to switch engines prior races at Magny-Cours and Silverstone, meaning he would take a ten spot grid penalty in each event.

In all cases, reliability kept him from wins and (possibly) two championships.

At the same time, Kimi’s teammates didn’t always suffer the same mechanical woes, especially in 2005.

That year, teammates Juan Pablo Montoya, Pedro de la Rosa, and Alex Wurz suffered only two mechanical failures.

Even in his 2007 championship season, Kimi suffered mechanical ills in two races, while Felipe Massa only failed to finish once due to car failure (but did have to start at the back twice due to troubles during practice and/or qualifying).

Perhaps Kimi Raikkonen’s speed may be a cause of Ferrari’s reliability problems (on his car at least).

One thing is certain: Ferrari has to figure out a way to make their last for entire race distances. Otherwise, they might as well hand Mclaren both championships.