motorsportmania

Lewis and Seb to swap places at the end of the season is a good story as are the hot denials that it might happen. It could be pure speculation, as could the one about Lewis walking away from the sport at the end of the year, but we are well into Silly Season and there will be all sorts of tosh floating about. That said, if we are to speculate, would a move to the Prancing Horse be a good one for Lewis?

If we look at the modern era of F1, say from around 1990, the years when ferrari have done really well (they will usually do at least fairly well) are those when they have had someone with powerful motivation and the ability to focus the team around them; Prost at the start of that period, Schumacher, Alonso (to a degree) and now Vettel. All three of these are self centered drivers who bent the team around them and made it work.

Agreed that they won a world title with Kimi, but look more closely at that year and it is obvious that the toxic rivalry over at Woking gifted the title for the McLaren pair finished joint second just one point behind the Finn. Massa’s near miss a couple of years later was also more due to Jenson and Lewis taking points off each other to make it that close.

Lewis is a very gifted driver and, like Alonso, can get more out of a car that might be there for mere mortals, but can he mould Ferrari to his will? I don’t think that he could for he is not a political animal, rather he is a nice bloke. Yes he can drive the pants off a car when he is on song, but that is not enough. The Tifosi would probably love him, but that isn’t enough to thrive at Ferrari. He may have a massive ego, but he can be fragile and the Italian press would crucify him if they scented any weakness.

Even if he went to Ferrari with guaranteed number one status I doubt that he could pull the team together in the way that Vettel has. Alonso could not really make the team work for him in the end for all of his talent as a driver and his ability to play team politics so someone as naïve as Lewis would have little chance.

It has been a good story and all being well it is no more than that. I hope so, for Lewis deserves better.

Filed under: Drivers, F1, Teams | Tagged: F1, ferrari |