Ferrari is back to the dark days of 1990s, according to former F1 team owner

Former F1 team principal and owner Paul Stoddart compared Ferrari's current situation to that of the team in the 1980s and 1990s. The former Minardi F1 team boss felt the Maranello team had too many strategic errors and lacked consistency.

In his column on Racing News 365, Stoddart wrote:

“The tyre strategies both for Ferrari and Aston Martin - and Ferrari in particular - taking those Hard tyres off so early in the race, surprised me. I think it's fair to say probably both Ferrari and Aston didn't have the right strategies yesterday."

He continued:

"In the 90s you had a situation where the last world champion for Ferrari was all the way back in 1979. I feel they're almost going through the same thing now. They're not quite as bad as they were then, but the mistakes that I see each weekend. Again, the car is fast enough on one lap, but where was Leclerc in the race? He was nowhere. There is just no consistency."

He further added:

"Then you come to a Sunday almost expecting them to mess up the strategy somewhere in the race, and that's not good enough. It's Fred Vasseur's first year, but if I was in Ferraris position, I would be really seriously worried.”

After assessing the performance of Ferrari in Monaco and Spain, Stoddart felt the Maranello squad might have gone back to its struggles of the 1990s. After winning the last driver’s championship in 1979, Ferrari had not won a championship until 2000 with Michael Schumacher.

The scarlet team had won a constructors championship in 1982, 1983, and 1999. It wasn’t until the golden era in the 2000s that they started to dominate again. He also pointed out Charles Leclerc’s performance in the Spanish GP, where the 25-year-old finished 11th in the race after starting from the pit lane.

The last time the scarlet team won a drivers championship was in 2007 with Kimi Raikkonen, and claimed their last constructor’s title in 2008. Since then, they have been unsuccessful in claiming titles despite having multiple champions like Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel in their lineup.

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Paul Stoddart reckons Ferrari are never going to be able to lure Adrian Newey

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Former Minardi team boss feels Ferrari will never be successful in employing Red Bull aerodynamic genius Adrian Newey. Helmut Marko had admitted that the Maranello team had not just tried poaching Newey but also their team CEO, Christian Horner.

After the departure of team principal Mattia Binotto due to a dismal 2022 title campaign, the team has also lost deputy team principal Laurent Mekies to Alpha Tauri for the 2023 season. Struggling with an underwhelming car and organizational issues, they have been unable to return to their winning ways.

Assessing their current scenario, Stoddart said:

“Let's be honest, they're never going to get Adrian Newey. He's probably the only one at the moment - or someone like Adrian - that I think has the actual talent to get them out of where they are and bring them back to world championships."

He concluded:

"So I do fear that they are stuck between the budget cap, and the fact there's no obvious person out there to actually take them forward. It's a shame because Ferrari is a name and a team that's so associated with F1, irrespective of who you support, it's sad to see Ferrari continually struggle.”

While the Tifosi have always been the bulk of F1 fans, there has been a growth in the fan following of other teams in the last decade.

The Italian team is currently in fourth place in the constructors championship, far from the second place they finished in 2022. In 2021, they had to fight McLaren for third place as Red Bull and Mercedes fought for the main titles at the front.