Trouble at Maranello?

Let’s rewind to the end of 1993. The Ferrari F1 team has been on a miserable run of form. The past three years have seen the team endure a painful winless streak, despite triple World Champion (as he was back then) Alain Prost driving for the team for the first of those three seasons.

Rising French-Sicilian star Jean Alesi picked up the mantle of team leader after his illustrious teammate was sacked even before the final Grand Prix of 1991. But the red cars have only grown slower relative to the opposition and Alesi’s decision to turn down a Williams drive isn’t looking so smart, less so as Mansell and Prost cruise to consecutive titles with the British squad in that period.

Ferrari finish fourth in the Constructors’ championship in both 1992 and 1993. Not bad, perhaps, but the differences between the large and small teams were even bigger then than now. Fourth is nowhere. Between two cars over the 1992 season’s 16 Grands Prix, the Scuderia logs a miserable 12 finishes from 32 starts, with just two podiums and 21 points to show for its efforts.