#maranello.ask

[maranello]

Hello from team LH, don’t worry it’s weird for us too 🫱🏻‍🫲🏿

ahdjdjd I see so much toxicity already and I’m still trying to process the idea that Lewis is even leaving Merc…….much less for Ferrari…….

but I hope we can unite in wanting to kick r*d b*ll into the ground ❤️💜

[maranello]

Why is Santander the root of all evil 😗 very curious to know

Sigh. Okay. Just know that I am not un-biased and I am just. tired and fed up fed up with Ferrari F1 shenanigans. Buckle up, kids, this is going to be a long one:

1. In the two periods of Santander's relationship with Ferrari (2010-2017; 2021-current), we have seen a Spanish driver in a Ferrari seat, questionable-at-best management decisions and from the pit wall, the phrase "internal politics" underlie every conversation surrounding why Ferrari has not won another title since 2007/2008, while Red Bull somehow are snagging consecutive titles. Did I mention our cars are not performing well either?

So if I had a nickel. For every time this has happened. I would have two nickels. And two times is not much in the grand scheme of things, but it is in the span of 15 years. Like. 10 out of the 15 years. You know, the very same 15 years since Ferrari last won an F1 title.

I personally think if you have not won a title in 15 years maybe you should stop doing the same things that have not won you a title in those 15 years. 2. Putting the viscerally unsavory flashbacks of longsuffering tifosi and outright conspiracy theories aside, to put it bluntly: Santander Group, a Spanish bank, had been the title sponsor (first period) and is one of the the biggest sponsors (current period) of Scuderia Ferrari F1. When you are such a big sponsor, you have a say in things, and Santander have a vested interest in seeing the Spanish driver they are backing to succeed at Ferrari. Now, whether that is in Scuderia Ferrari's best interests or gives it the best shot at winning anything is a different matter— The board and the management of Ferrari are obligated to contend with what Santander wants. It would be wrong to assume that Santander can single-handedly call the shots in Ferrari as a big sponsor, but it would also be wrong to deny that they can, possibly do, and likely have played a part in the famed internal politics of Scuderia Ferrari in the time(s) that they have been sponsors. 3. It is one thing to say that Silverstone 2022 was "gifted" to Carlos Sainz Jr. But another to highlight what Santander's official account posted under Ferrari's post praising Charles' efforts in the race (after the pit wall royally screwed his race up with a win on the line and more importantly, a championship, mind you, at that point, still to play for):

While we always have to keep in mind that official social media accounts are often just corporate personas and are very deliberate about what they do to get your sympathy and your engagement— What can you possibly gather from a comment like that?

I want to see Scuderia Ferrari consistently challenging for and winning championships again. I want to see decisions being made that support this goal. At that point in 2022, Charles was still our best and realistically only shot. To see a comment being made like that so blatantly on an official account that could (and from a PR standpoint, should've!!!) easily be using corporate teamwork language?

It was hard to give Santander the benefit of the doubt that this partnership, this time, does enough to serve Ferrari in its goals rather than obstruct it. And a large part of that is also on management for not being firm with how much input to take balancing what a sponsor wants and what is good for the team.

4. The bulk of the issues that Ferrari fans have with this whole Santander situation has a lot more to do with Ferrari's internal politics getting in the way of doing what needs to be done on a management level to win - and the way that affects the relationship of Ferrari with other talented drivers, such as Kimi Räikkönen (which this article someone dug up on Twitter from 2012 goes into) and Felipe Massa, whom I need you to remember was not just some almost-world champion of 2008, but was considered one of the very best talents of his generation and groomed to be the heir of Michael at Ferrari in 2006.

This is not a knock at "Santander-backed" drivers or to say they unfairly got their positions and brought nothing to the table. I, for one, have a soft spot for the Fernando Alonso years because he was the first Ferrari driver I actually got to see race in person. He came so close to the title in 2010. And to this day I still have no idea how he was a title contender to the end with that car in 2012. And clearly in the year of our lord 2023, you see he still has that killer drive to get to whatever team it takes that can give him the best shot at winning and still has all the talent in the world + experience as a 2X F1 world champion/Le Mans winner today to back it up. (I would have loved to be watching him race if I could bear to look at Formula 1 this year with how Ferrari is doing.)

Charles Leclerc is, to the tifosi, and I believe to good part of Ferrari itself and many who had been a part of Ferrari, special, though. He is a generational talent. He has grown up through the ranks of Ferrari's own driver academy and is the very first to make it to the works team, in a very short time too. To many of us longsuffering Ferrari fans, it seems that surely, provided he has the right car and a good team in the pits and on the wall, he will bring the championship back to us. If Ferrari cannot win with him, who has been steadfast and loyal even through a rough year like 2020 and has performed nothing short of miracles with a shitbox of a car, then Ferrari's the problem. And the biggest problem being things—whether it is internal politics (largely) or ego (also huge) or plain bad decision making (I don't know how to fix this) or technological development (least of our problems really, Ferrari is capable of producing good cars)—keep getting in the way of Ferrari fixing its problems and winning a goddamn championship.

So, we are at Santander Ferrari 2: Electric Boogaloo. Charles' current 5-year contract is ending in 2024. If, let's just say, poor decision-making from the pit wall at crucial moments costing not just wins but potential championship contention, internal politicking that seem to leave a legendary racing marque completely unable to get out of a 15-years-and-counting deep hole it keeps digging further, technological developments that despite sacrificing seasons for keep missing the regulations and even when it gets marginally right will ultimately be sniped by poor pit wall calls or the FIA & co. anyways, etc., Charles, who has taken the brunt of a lot of blame off the shoulders of the team and repeatedly reiterated his dedication to winning the title with Ferrari, decides to look elsewhere—

Do you see why alarm bells are ringing for Ferrari fans?

I feel that it's just such a misrepresentation to say that all the reaction we have been seeing against Santander are just Charles Leclerc fangirls looking to discredit Carlos Sainz Jr., making up conspiracy theories about "Sainztander," and bullying his fans etc. Santander meddling in Ferrari is not a newly invented narrative nor is it a completely unfounded suspicion by salty fans.

To me, Ferrari will always come first. Ferrari always should come first. So it is great when the interests of big sponsors, drivers, the management, and the team itself all align. It is also incredibly rare. This entanglement with Santander, from 2021 onwards, just increasingly feels like a mistake because it seems that—and I hope to God I am wrong—Ferrari has not learned anything from our first stint with Santander, and it will cost us.

5. So we arrive here: the morning of April 15, 2023.

Lapo Elkann, with his wild eyes and tattoos, colorful personality (and personal history) to match the blazers and pants he wears, has been in a lot of contact with his brother John Elkann, the chosen heir of the Agnelli family of Fiat fortune, recently. After a period of rather unusual quietness on his usually busy Twitter— perhaps coinciding with the various woes that have been falling upon family-owned sports franchises named Juventus FC and Scuderia Ferrari, of which he is an avid and active fan of— Lapo has returned to the public light, tweeting his thoughts on anything that he sees fit, punctuated with pithy uses of CAPITALIZATION and a variegated arsenal of emojis 🔥♥🙏👀.

AND SO, on this fine morning of April 15, 2023— nearly two weeks after a disastrous Australian Grand Prix to forget for Scuderia Ferrari— Lapo Elkann tweeted thus:

Ferrari 🏎️ needs ❤️ Seriousness and [a] Winning Team in the Pits and Outside it's time to WAKE UP enough with politics and games like this WE WILL NEVER WIN ‼️ ‼ ‼ ‼ ‼

Is—

Is that—

Mamma mia.

Here we go agai—

[maranello]

Do you think Ferrari kicking out Santander would help them improve?

only one way to find out :)

[maranello]

Wait, who was fired mid season in ferrari? Didn't only redbull do that?

Alain Prost.

[maranello]

Hiii!! Sorry to disturb you, I'm kinda new to the fandom and i was wondering what was the joke that charles pulled on the Ferrari team and how they broke the news of his 5yr contract to him? And what is the "car he won in" thing included in the contract? Sorry to be bothersome ksjsjsn

I need cute Ferrari and Charles story to somehow mend my broken heart after the mess of the last few races, i love anecdotes about how much his team loves him and is wrapped around his fingers

helllooooo, it's no trouble at all! I love talking about charles and ferrari :') so here we go!

The prank Charles pulled on the Ferrari team was at the last 3 corners to him winning Bahrain 2022. For context, 3 years ago, Charles was leading the race in Bahrain by around 10 seconds, in his second race ever with Ferrari. It was brilliant to watch. It felt like he was really going to win his first race in just his second race ever in a competitive car. (Previously, he had just one year at Sauber, which finished P8 in the standings.) But then. "There's something strange with the engine, something strange with the engine!" Lewis passed him. Then Valtteri. He managed to keep a P3 thanks to a safety car, but his very first podium in F1 had been a disappointment because were it not for the engine problem, he really should have had his maiden win then. It wouldn’t be until Spa 2019 where he would win his first F1 grand prix. Flashforward to 2022. First race of the season. Ferrari had been P3 last year. They looked quite strong in testing but you never really know until you get the cars on track. Charles is on pole. He drives beautifully, outsmarts Max Verstappen after a close pit stop then holds him off with a perfect restart. We’re at the final lap. Three corners to the end. Then you hear on Charles’ radio: “There’s something strange with the engine, something strange with the engine!” Brief pause. Engineers checking their date. Mechanics suffering a mini heart attack in the garage. Tentatively, Xavi, his race engineers, laughs, nervously, “Copy.” Pause. “I’m joking.” You can hear his smile. “Understood.” He reaches the finish line. “And P1!!”  Charles says he’d actually been planning this prank for about 10-15 laps, the madman, hoping there wouldn’t be reliability issues. (Possibly through that nervy safety car restart even.) He said he was already imaging the face of an engineer Torre in the garage, “povero gabbiano hai perduto la compagna.” [reference to an italian meme, “poor seagull who lost his mate!”] This is an inside joke between Charles and the Ferrari garage, who had played the song in the garage and dared him to say it on the radio, if he won. Mattia says to him on the radio, “Never do that again, eh?” Charles responds that no, of course not, it was only appropriate in this situation.  Charles pulls up to the pit lane. P1. He embraces his team, they are rejoicing, this feels like redemption and a rebirth. “Sei uno stronzo! Sei uno stronzo!” his mechanics/engineers say as they hug him. Yeah, because he is an asshole for making them a heart attack for a few seconds like that!

The story of Charles being notified that he got the Ferrari seat for 2019 is also such a great one because, like Charles’ Bahrain 2022 joke, it really is representative of Ferrari humor. (Basically, Person A will go like [smth completely untrue/opposite of what they want to say,] Person B will be like oh..., and then Person A is like :3 jk, actually-)  I’m not sure if this call takes place during the summer or during the season, but it should before Kimi announced at the Italian Grand Prix that he was going to Sauber/Alfa Romeo next year. Charles, at that point, was in his first year with Sauber. He’d been doing a brilliant job with a car that wasn’t that great, getting it into Q3s and scoring good points too. It was a big debate among tifosi whether or not Charles should be called up or not. Most wanted Kimi to stay. He was massively popular, his form was seeing an uptick in the latter half of the season, he was a very steady and solid partner to Seb who was leading the championship fights for Ferrari. Charles, just 20 at the time, was an unknown. It hadn’t been in Ferrari’s nature to promote drivers young for some years. Massa had spent 3-4 years at Sauber before stepping up to Ferrari in 2006. The Ferrari Drivers Academy had only been established in December 2009, Jules Bianchi was the first member. He was still part of Ferrari’s program when he made it to F1, driving at backmarker team Marussia F1 in 2013 and 2014 until his fatal accident at the Japanese Grand Prix. Jules probably would have made the step up to the midfield Sauber in 2015 first, to prove himself more, before he could step up into Ferrari, a future that had seemed certain to so many around the paddock until his accident.  But then, a few years on you had Charles, who was immediately fast in a car and learned even faster. He won GP3 and F2 back to back in his rookie seasons. Since 2017, there’s been quite some hype surrounding him as a Ferrari junior who was dominating the F2 season, even more so for his incredible show of maturity and determination to race and win on the very week his father died. That weekend had impressed then Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene.  And so, in 2018, some time during summer break or before the Italian Grand Prix, Charles receives a phone call from Maurizio. Maurizio says, “Okay, we’ve made our decision, you are not taken for 2019.” Charles was, of course, disappointed. But it is an understandable decision to renew Kimi Raikkonen, the last Ferrari champion, you know? He will get his chance eventually. 15 seconds pass. “No, I’m joking,” Maurizio says. On September 11,  there is the official announcement: Charles Leclerc will drive for Scuderia Ferrari in 2019. 

Charles won Spa and Monza back to back in 2019, his first and second win consecutively. The first Ferrari win at Monza since Fernando Alonso in 2010. He’d sustained consistent pressure from Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas throughout the whole race, and he won. As soon as he won Monza, this 21-year-old kid said to Ferrari, “...You know, I would love this car at home.” And they were like, “Oh, we’ll see, we’ll see.” The end of the year rolls around. Charles is renewing his contract with Ferrari. In the process of re-negotiating his contract, he brings up the point about the car that won in Spa and won in Monza, and Ferrari accepts. Charles renews his contract with Ferrari by 5 years, the longest contract length in Scuderia Ferrari history, a courtesy not even Michael Schumacher received. That 5-year contract just shows you the regard Charles and Ferrari has for each other.  So, in 2021, ahead of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Charles teases that he has received a very special gift from Ferrari. It is that SF90 car, with the same exact chassis that he won his first two grand prix with back in 2019. 

[maranello]

meow:(

[maranello]

Why is Charles literally a cat?????

[maranello]

and i’m supposed to be studying because yesterday i didn’t do shit but this time it was 100% ames’ fault for putting 2015 malaysian gp seb in my dash . blame them<3

@ivettel sending you the bill for emotional damages done to me on this wednesday night