Motorsport: Schumacher becomes Ferrari fall guy

Michael Schumacher is being hung out to dry by Italian media over Ferrari's dismal performance in Malaysia. Photo / AP

Michael Schumacher is said by the Italian media to have been responsible for the disastrous decision that saw Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen lose any chance in Sunday's monsoon Malaysian Grand Prix, when he was switched to extreme wet weather tyres four laps before the predicted rain fell.

Reports suggested the team's former driver and current adviser was involved in the embarrassing gaffe, which merely served to underline Ferrari's poor start to 2009.

The season has so far been a disaster for the team that so dominated the first half of the century with Schumacher, took Raikkonen to the 2007 title, and won the constructors' championship last year as Felipe Massa was only narrowly beaten for the drivers' crown by Lewis Hamilton in the final race.

Two races, nil points. The alarm bells are ringing in Maranello.

Rather than earning Raikkonen any advantage, the extraordinary tyre gamble cost him 20 seconds a lap so that he was well out of contention even as his rivals eventually made pit stops for wet weather tyres when the rain finally fell on the 22nd lap.

With the Brawn Mercedes, Toyota, Red Bull, Williams and BMW Sauber teams leading the way thus far this season, the pickings have been slim for Ferrari and McLaren, the two teams that slugged it out last year.

While both have tried putting a brave face on their problems, it is clear that the fight for 2008 honours has compromised their respective efforts for 2009. Brawn, meanwhile, for whom Honda began serious work on their 2009 car last April, have reaped a huge advantage that is unlikely to be eroded overnight.

The Brawn team principal, Ross Brawn, was one of the masterminds behind Ferrari's tremendous success since 2000. Together with Schumacher, the designer Rory Byrne and team principal Jean Todt, they formed the legendary "four-legged stool" which, they claimed, could not be upset by the demands of Ferrari's chairman, Luca di Montezemolo.

Now, however, Brawn has moved on, Byrne is in happy retirement, and Todt has perforce severed all ties with Ferrari. Only Schumacher remains, and if Sunday's story is true, his strategic thinking is less adept than his driving.

Ironically, the team have become much more respected under their new principal, Stefano Domenicali, who took it on the chin in Sepang: "We are very disappointed because once again, we leave a circuit empty-handed," he said. "With hindsight, it's clear that we took some wrong decisions, especially in Kimi's case at his first pit stop. Clearly, we have to extricate ourselves from this situation, without panicking, but with every one of us taking on our responsibilities: we have to dig deep and react, starting immediately."

One wonders how Di Montezemolo reacted on Sunday, given his admission that he threw an ashtray through his TV set when Massa lost the title in Brazil last year. Further errors in China next week surely cannot be tolerated.

- THE INDEPENDENT