The Story Of Success: Part 3, An Experienced Team Re-Born (part 1 Of 2)

The rumours of Mclaren driver Kimi Raikkonen switching to Ferrari for 2007 were rife throughout the F1 paddock. However, along side those rumours, were even stronger one's about Kimi rufuseing to join Ferrari if Michael Schumacher was still firmly in his seat in the number one Ferrari.

The usual setting of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza in September was the event that cleared the rumours, seperating fact from fiction.

As Schumacher crossed the line at the historic circuit, a press statement was released announcing Schumacher's retirement from F1. It was a very emotional scene on the podium as Schumacher celebrated the penultimate win of his career.

Within hours after the Grand Prix had finshed, Ferrari released another statement saying that they had secured the services of Kimi Raikkonen on a three year deal (at a reported cost of $51m, making him the second highest paid sportsman in the world).

It had been a long and exhausting battle with Renault driver Fernando Alonso, the current World Campion at the time, and Michael's championship hopes were over as his engine blew at Suzuka, Japan. Alonso had to drive past Schumacher's stricken Ferrari, effectively taking the drivers crown with him.

Alonso was crowned Champion at Brazil, but it was Schumacher that was celebrated.

His last race in F1 was marked by a ceremony at the start where a trophy was given to Michael by football legend Pele. Noticable by his absence during this ceremony was one Kimi Raikkonen, who famously said he was "having a sh*t" when asked why he didnt attend.

On October 26th, Ferrari released a statement saying that Ross Brawn, the team's Technical Director and mastermind behind Schumacher's championship's, was taking a years sabaticle. Ross had interests in setting up a scuba diving resort in Thailand.

A lot of people compared his sabaticle with Mikka Hakkinen's sabaticle, during which he decided not to come back.

The Tifosi were uneasy about losing several members of a proven race winning team.

Among the leavers were Rory Byrne, the chief designer for Ferrari's F1 program, and Paolo Matinelli, head of Ferrari's Engine dept. Jean Todt, the team principle, had also been promoted to General Manager of Ferrari, though he would still play a part in the F1 team, gradually weaning himself away from F1.

Aldo Costa was promoted up to chief designer, taking up Byrne's previous role.

Stefano Domenicali was promoted from team manager to team principle.

The world's media created a storm over the apparent destruction triggered by Schumacher's decision to leave. Would Ferrari be as strong without Michael? How would they function without Ross Brawn? Would Ferrari's design team slip under the newly appointed and less experienced Aldo Costa?

In late October 2006. Ferrari confirmed that Schumacher would continue as a consultant to the team, and act as Ferrari's ambassador to the sport.

2007 would be an interesting season, a test to see how this new team would perform.

With the launch of the F2007 came the first glimpse of the new driver line up.

Kimi Raikkonen and Brazillian Felipe Massa posed for photo's with Costa's first creation.

The first race in Australia was a massive boost for the Scuderia, with Kimi taking his first win for Ferrari at the first race of the season.

Foul play was shouted as it was discovered that Ferrari were using a movable floor system. Although the FIA declared the system illegal, no punishment was handed to them.

The rest of the start of the season did not go as well. Both drivers suffered multiple retirements due to hydraulic failures, which was a shock, as the team had shown nearly infallable reliability in previous seasons.

Due to an accident in their win tunnel, Ferrari spent quite a few races playing second fiddle to Mclaren and their all star line up of World Champion Fernando Alonso, whom they had secured from Renault in a suprise coup, and newby Lewis Hamilton.

The French Grand Prix, which was to be the circuit's last, was the scene of the Scuderia's first one-two of the season, but they were already way behind the Mclaren driver's in the championship. Hope looked lost, and the notriously fickle Italian media began to sharpen their lyrical knives.

The British Grand Prix at Silverstone showed the signs of a little ray of hope smiling down upon the Tifosi and their beloved team. Raikkonen won, with Massa having made his way up to fifth after stalling on the grid and starting from twenty second. Kimi had denied Hamilton from winning his home GP in his debut season.

Success denied them at both of the next races, but Raikkonen was generally scoring well in the points, when not retiring from the afore mentioned hydraulic issues.

It was about this time that Ferrari released a statement saying that they had sacked an engineer called Nigel Stepny and had "recently presented a case against Nigel Stepney and an engineer from the Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes team with the Modena Tribunal, concerning the theft of technical information. Furthermore, legal action has been instigated in England and a search warrant has been issued concerning the engineer."

It was later found out that Stepney had been handing Mclaren engineer Mike Coughlan sensitive information abut the team, including an eight hundred page document about the inner workings of the team. Everything from the details of the chassis to the inner workings of the pitstop were inside this document.

Mclaren sacked Coughlan after they had presented the FIA with the document, were disqualified from the championship and were fined $100m.

The FIA did not dock the points from Mclaren's drivers in the interest of providing a good, entertaining season.

The battle between the four drivers raged on.

Istanbul, in Turkey, however, had always been a circuit that Felipe Massa excelled on, and sure enough he took pole. Raikkonen had to settle for third, behid Hamilton's Mclaren, but passed him early in the race. Massa led the way for Ferrari's second one-two of the 2007 season.

That season's Italian GP was the first time the "new" Ferrari team had got the chance to race in front of their home crowd. Raikkonen crashed during practice after hitting a bump in the road during a braking zone that then spat him off the track and into the wall. although he was unharmed, the team had to work hard to ensure his car was ready for qualifying.

Race day at the Italian Grand Prix started with Massa third and Kimi fifth. Mclaren had locked out the front row. after starting well, Massa retired with more hydraulic problems, while Raikkonen went on to finish third, behind Alonso and Hamilton.

The Belgian Grand Prix, went well for the team. They scored their first lock out of the front row in 2007, with Raikkonen first and Massa just behind him. they led the race flawlessly, finishing exactly where they had started, and giving Ferrari the Constructors Championship. It was the Scuderia's fifthteenth Constructors title in F1.

But the battle for the Drivers Championship was still to be fought. With Raikkonen trailing in points, and Massa even further behind, it began to look like the Drivers title would go to a Mclaren driver.

A soaking wet Japanese Grand Prix at Fuji, started behind the safety car, and stayed that way for nearly twenty laps. Massa, after recieving a drive through penalty for passing Nick Heidfeld while behind the safety car, had an abissmal afternoon, crashing into Alexander Wurz, and spinning off, before finally finishing sixth after passing Rbert Kubica on the final lap. Raikkonen did do better, but had to settle for third place, behind his fellow countrymen Heikki Kovalinen.The race was won by Hamilton.

There was two races to go. Massa was out of the race for the Championship, Raikkonen was five points behind Alonso, and seventeen points behind Hamilton.

Lewis Hamilton only needed one more victory to secure the drivers crown in his debut season.

The race in Shanghi followed in similar conditions. The rain poured, effectively turning the circuit into a boating lake. Extreme wet tyres were the order of the day, and Hamilton led most of the way, with Raikonnen trailing in second place.

As Hamilton led, the weather began to clear up, and a white stripe began to appear n his right rear tyre as it began to delaminate itself in the drying conditions. Mclaren decided not to pit Lewis early, but to keep him out on his current tyres for a few laps longer. All the while, Kimi was firmly stuck in second place.

When Hamilton finally pitted, he turned the corner into the pit lane, sliding off into the gravel trap as his tyres gave up on him. He was beached, firmly stuck, and handed the race victory to Kimi.

Kimi Raikkonen was now only seven points behind Hamilton with one race to go.

Brazil was the scene of the following showdown. As much as Raikkonen was on the verge of winning the championship, so were Hamilton and Alonso. Raikkonen had to ensure that he scored more points than both Alonso, and Hamilton.

Massa scored pole, during qualifying, with Hamilton second, Raikkonen third and Alonso fourth.

Massa led from the start, with Raikonnen jumping to second after Hamilton slid onto the gravel. He recovered to seventh, but was pushed further down the field when his gearbox software slowed his car, almost to a halt, for nearly 20 seconds.

Raikkonen passed Massa during the second round of pitstop's, and went on to win the race, with Hamilton finishing seventh. it was yet another one-two victory for Ferrari, and Kimi Raikkonen had won the 2007 world championship by a single point.

He had done it out of regular points finishes, with a few wins scattered through the season, rather than dominating in a Schumacher esque way.

Ferrari proved that even without their star driver, Michael Schumacher, and several other important members that had helped secure Michael's great success, that they were still a team to be reckonned with.

(To be continued in part 2, which will follow soon....)