Those with an eye for such symmetry will have noticed that the first three drivers to qualify for Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix were Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Nico Rosberg – exactly the same as last year. The only difference is that Vettel was driving for Red Bull in 2014, while these days he is in the saddle of Ferrari’s prancing horse. The dominance of the two Mercedes at the end of last season was complete and carried on to Australia two weeks ago, but Vettel placed a question mark against their continued hegemony by splitting the two Silver Arrows at a damp Sepang Circuit on Saturday, and he was less than a 10th of a second behind Hamilton.
Niki Lauda is very much a Mercedes man these days but the red cap that is permanently attached to the top of his head like an angry boil is a reminder that he once drove for the team from Italy. He won two of his three world championships with Ferrari, and on Saturday afternoon he was in no doubt: “Ferrari are coming!” he said. “They have improved more than any other team since last season.” And that is the general view of the paddock.
Otmar Szafnauer, Force India’s chief operating officer, was speaking for many when he told the Observer: “Ferrari look a better team all-round compared with last year. They have a better chassis and a better power unit and they have a very motivated new driver in Sebastian Vettel.”
Formula One, of course, is desperate for someone to come along and challenge Mercedes’ swaggering authority. It certainly will not be McLaren, at least not this season, and it is unlikely to be Red Bull, last year’s runners-up, who are still struggling with their Renault engine.
That leaves Ferrari and Williams, last year’s surprise package, who finished third having been ninth in 2013. Williams look in the mood to be just as solid as they were last time. But it is Ferrari, with their vast resources, who have the greater potential and who are the most likely to push Mercedes.
There have been big changes at Ferrari. Team chiefs Stefano Domenicali and then Marco Mattiacci have both gone in the last year, as has star driver Fernando Alonso, the engineering director Pat Fry and the chief designer Nikolas Tombazis.
All this has given more room for the brilliant British designer James Allison to stamp his authority on the team as technical director. The 47-year-old joined Ferrari from Lotus in the summer of 2013. Crucially, though, he had a five-year spell at Maranello earlier in his career, so he understands the very political nature of the Italian team.
Allison had an input into last year’s car but a great deal of work had already been done before his arrival. This year’s model is the first to really carry his fingerprints and the signs are good. Allison was a part of the highly successful Ferrari and Renault teams of a few years ago.
It was nearly two months ago, at the beginning of February, that we first saw the new Ferrari in action in the first of the three testing sessions in Jerez. It was quick, but were they showboating? It is always difficult to tell in testing, where no one is sure what fuel levels are being run. Testing is about sandbagging, and showing off, too.
But Ferrari’s potential was also clear to see in the two subsequent testing sessions in Barcelona and, although the cars disappointed in the opening race in Australia, Allison pointed out that this was probably because the team had underachieved in qualifying.
These are still early days but there is certainly a growing feeling that Ferrari just might save the season by giving Mercedes a run for their considerable money. This is how it should be, of course. Works teams such as Mercedes and Ferrari – who make their own engines – are always more likely to prosper than the customer teams when it comes to adapting to the new power units.
The only downside for Ferrari on Saturday was that Vettel’s team-mate, Kimi Raikkonen, failed to make it to the top 10 shoot-out in Q3. He had been held up by Marcus Ericsson’s Sauber and was in 11th place when the driving came to halt in Q2.
“We got it wrong. We should have been out earlier but that is how it is,” the Finn said. “The lap time is there or thereabouts so we expected to be strong in qualifying. We finally find some speed and this happens. That’s part of the game but it is disappointing.”
But it is generally felt that Raikkonen is motivated and in the mood to improve on his many disappointing performances last year. Vettel also has something to prove, having been consistently outperformed by his young team-mate Daniel Ricciardo in his final year at Red Bull.
So both drivers have a point to make. And so do – after many years of failure – Ferrari, the biggest and most glamorous team in Formula One.
