The name Ferrari stirs many emotions in racing and road car enthusiasts around the world. No other marque has ever enjoyed the continual loyal support of such a massive fan base, through good times and bad.

Nothing quite like them, is there?

And the Ferrari story is one very much of good and bad times. Its racing history is chequered, if you’ll excuse the pun. Ferrari has enjoyed tremendous success, but also lain in the doldrums for many seasons. Those who are only familiar with the recent past and the success the team enjoyed with Michael Schumacher at the wheel forget that when the German won his first title for the Scuderia in 2000, it marked the end of a 21 year wait since its last drivers’ world championship in 1979 with Jody Scheckter.

But still the fans had remained loyal, especially the devoted ‘Tifosi’, the almost fanatical Italian following that fill the stands at Monza each year.

These days Ferrari is seen as a well-drilled, superbly organised team, a legacy of the days when Jean Todt was in charge. But before Todt took over the helms, Ferrari had a long-standing reputation for spells of brilliance, interrupted all too often by periods of Latin hysteria and disorganisation. They were very laid back as well, a relaxed lunch break of pasta and Chianti being the norm at one time.

That pit stop’s going to have to wait!

Todt changed all that and brought in more discipline. He also took complete control and eradicated the political in-fighting which had so often blighted the team’s chances of success. But Todt has been gone for the past two seasons and there have been signs of the old, bad ways creeping in again.
Do you remember the farce last year with the team’s ‘traffic lights’ in the pits, resulting in Felipe Massa being released too early from a pit stop in Singapore with the refuelling hose still attached?

And now we have had the embarrassing debacle of Luca Badoer tooling around at the back of the field, seconds off the pace of anybody else. The sight of this can’t do Ferrari’s reputation any good but why on earth did it arise in the first place?

Would you want to replace him?

It’s normal for a team to have test drivers as well as its main pairing who contest the Grands Prix on its books. Up until this year separate test teams were run with drivers whose job was to pound around tracks testing new pieces of equipment. They were also on stand-by in case one of the regular drivers was injured.

Unlike most other teams, Ferrari kept two old established drivers on its books, in the form of Luca Badoer, who last raced for Minardi a decade ago, and Marc Gene, who has not raced Formula One but is enjoying considerable success in long-distance sports car racing, having won Le Mans this year for Peugoet.

Other teams tend to have up-and-coming youngsters on their books who are still competing in some of the lesser formulae but who are ready to step up to the mark if required. This is what Sebastian Vettel did for BMW-Sauber when Robert Kubica was out of action briefly in 2007. These youngsters are race prepared and hungry for an F1 opportunity.

Where’s the next hot shot coming from?

When Felipe Massa was injured during qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix this year, Ferrari’s first thought was to bring Michael Schumacher out of retirement. The German has never really been happy since he retired and is retained as an ‘ambassador’ for Ferrari. He has also been a regular feature on the pit wall and apparently played a part in some poor calls on tyre choice earlier this year.

So Ferrari made the big mistake of trying to rely on the person who had been responsible for its most recent glory. It also figured that the sight of the German behind the wheel of the scarlet cars would inspire the fan base again, in a way that the almost-so-laid-back-as-to-be-nearly-horizontal Kimi Raikonnen never could. It was announced that Schuey would be returning for the Valencia GP and ticket sales began to soar.

A German, getting us excited?

But someone had jumped the gun. Schumacher had had a serious motorbike accident earlier in the year, in which he damaged his neck. It soon became clear that the injury has not yet fully healed and that his neck is not strong enough to put up with the rigours of driving a modern F1 car. There was an embarrassing climb-down as it had to be announced that he wouldn’t be in the car after all.

So then Ferrari was in a real dilemma. It had put all its eggs in one German basket – as it had done all the years he was driving for them, in fact – and now it needed a quick solution. It only had its two test drivers to choose from – Badoer or Gene? Incredibly, and against most predictions, they opted for the Italian, despite his ten-year lack of race experience. It’s bad enough being an Italian driving for Ferrari at the best of times – the media and fans expect instant success and woe betide anyone who doesn’t deliver – but to be thrown in at the deep end like that was nothing short of inhumane.

Watching Badoer struggle in the Ferrari F60 was nothing short of embarrassing and totally unacceptable for a team and manufacturer of Ferrari’s standing. He was slow everywhere except in the pit lane, where he kept getting fined for speeding, not being used to current protocol and forgetting to use the pit lane speed limiter. With only a week between Valencia and Spa, the team had no choice but to continue with him but things didn’t get any better.

Now the team has decided to replace him with Giancarlo Fisichella for its home race at Monza. To have had one of its cars running at the back of the field at the Italian Grand Prix, while the other was in contention for a victory, was unthinkable. Badoer had to be replaced and Fisichella – another Italian mind and so prone to the same pressures – can only be an improvement. His performance at Spa has proved he is still capable of racing at the front.

But how much damage has been done to Ferrari’s reputation by this debacle? It would never have happened in the Todt era and is another sign that Ferrari might be gradually slipping back into its old unpredictable ways.

Is this what they’re heading for?

The rumours are that Fernando Alonso will be driving for the team next year, alongside Felipe Massa, assuming he makes a full recovery, so where will that leave Fisichella then?  But Ferrari is also saying that it would like to run a third car for Schumacher in 2010 if the other teams agree. Ferrari needs to stop thinking that Schuey is still the answer to all its problems and to start looking ahead. It needs to get some young drivers on its books and bring them on. The appearance of 20-year-old Jules Bianchi in the pits at Spa shows that someone is thinking along the right lines. Let’s hope the youngster gets a chance as a test driver at least and then this glorious team’s reputation can start to be enhanced again.