12 replies to this topic

[HistoryFan]

Hello!

Ivan Capelli was the last Italian F1 driver at Ferrari (1992), as there were Nicola Larini and Luca Badoer in a handful GP after him.
Capelli was very fast at March/Leyton House and has a big name before he came to Ferrari.
So what happened at Ferrari in 1992? Why was Capelli so bad there?

[Richard Jenkins]

Already discussed in some detail in numerous threads on this site, so it's worth looking there. It includes an interview with Ivan as well, so you'll get decent answers there.
http://forums.autosp...capelli ferrari

But to give you a quick answer. Car was ****. Team was in disarray. Capelli lost confidence & had little support, it seems - whether that's because they didn't or couldn't is revealed in the other threads.

[Arjan de Roos]

Car was ****. Team was in disarray.

Understatement. Sorry Enzo

[George Costanza]

The Team did not have: Jean Todt, Ross Brawn. It was very unstable. and, The Ferrari Car of 1992, was so inferior in every aspect when compared to Williams Renault and McLaren Honda, that it simply did not have the pace. Yes, Jean Alesi did a pretty decent job, but that was largely because of well, he's Jean Alesi. And... one of the most pressured things of being an Italian driver for Ferrari... The country of Italy is on you, countung on you... No Wonder why Enzo Ferrari didn't like to hire Italian drivers. Unless it's Alberto Ascari.

Jean Alesi really really deserved so much more after putting up with the poor Ferrari cars...

Edited by George Costanza, 26 August 2009 - 15:17.

[giacomo]

Cannot remember Capelli ever being a big name.

[ddmichael]

Capelli was most certainly a big name during my youth and for me the pairing of him and Alesi at Ferrari was a dream come true. The tragedy is that what might have been Capelli's opportunity to finally fulfill his potential actually turned out to be the death knell for his F1 career.

Edited by ddmichael, 01 September 2009 - 12:27.

[COUGAR508]

For Capelli, it was probably a case of being in the right place at the wrong time. Although I remember the 1992 Ferrari being praised as "radical" on its launch, it quickly became clear that it was a mistake. After a couple of races, Capelli's career in F1 was being written off by the pundits. I remember James Hunt being typically blunt about his prospects during a BBC commentary.

[500MACHIII]

Thinking about Capelli I found myself looking back to those drivers who after showing a great single performance , or even a sequence of brilliant drives, did no more show anything as good in their career: Capelli,Alesi,Patrese,Boutsen,Irvine,Arnoux,De Cesaris,Teo Fabi etc.

Reading of recent interwievs to team managers and engineers who were working with these guys in their F1 years, I could realize that basically ,notwithstanding fewest brilliant performances,most of these guys who never made it, were just average drivers overall.
Some were fast but unable to properly set their car, some were refined testers but not so gifted at the wheel. One was fairly fast but usually asking too much to his car to keep up with his opponents and that's why he had so many engine or drivetrain failures...
Others had weak nerves, or couldn't manage their own private life as correctly as a pro driver should.

Of course luck plays a great part in the game: as a sample of this,Alan Jones got his drive at Williams Saudia just by chance, and we all are aware that great sponsorships (taken or missing) have been ruling drivers' destiny.
Marketing actions by big sponsors as well have easily stated who had to drive the best car inside a team , so bypassing actual driver's skill.
All this, just to remark that even those average drivers could have achieved better results (if not a WCT) if sitting in the right cockpit at the right time.

Back to Capelli I perfectly recall Montezemolo quick reply to a flash question : it was a short time after Capelli had been fired... " Capelli ? (Montezemolo was hurried ,walking away from a Fiat event or sth like that ).....Oh well. Capelli is a good guy " Period.
Ok he was rushing away,but ...those few words were as heavy as stones.

[stevewf1]

The Team did not have: Jean Todt, Ross Brawn. It was very unstable. and, The Ferrari Car of 1992, was so inferior in every aspect when compared to Williams Renault and McLaren Honda, that it simply did not have the pace. Yes, Jean Alesi did a pretty decent job, but that was largely because of well, he's Jean Alesi. And... one of the most pressured things of being an Italian driver for Ferrari... The country of Italy is on you, countung on you... No Wonder why Enzo Ferrari didn't like to hire Italian drivers. Unless it's Alberto Ascari.

Jean Alesi really really deserved so much more after putting up with the poor Ferrari cars...

Which makes what Michael Schumacher did even more impressive... Not only did he set all kinds of stats records with Ferrari, he was instrumental in getting the team turned around.

[Mansell Madgwick]

Capelli seemed to be quite a mercurial character - at Paul Ricard and other smooth tracks he was amazing in the Leyton House, which always went well there. Before that, when the team was March and seemed to be focused around him, he was a fairly regular points scorer. Then again I believe the Adrian Newey Leyton Houses were very sensitive to bumps in the track, and I suppose that was very demoralising for Gugelmin and him; at the sharp end one weekend and struggling to qualify the next, with no discernible thing you could do about it! I suspect that few drivers would have prospered in the second string FA92 Ferrari, and Ivan was just in the wrong seat at the wrong time.

[COUGAR508]

I have often wondered how differently Capelli would have fared at Ferrari if he had been paired with Prost, for example. He and Alesi were regarded more as equals, and Ivan could have felt that he had to share more of the burden and pressure than if he had been an out-and-out number two driver.

[David M. Kane]

You guys would be good at movie reviews too...

[HistoryFan]

Thank you for posting!