Schumacher and the historic move to Ferrari
Reconstruction is a word that has been associated with Ferrari many times by fans who dream of a return to success after almost 20 years of waiting. It is a concept that requires patience: clearly not everyone is endowed with it, but the long-time Ferrari fan has learned to be. The last winning cycle of the Rossa, in fact, began in 1999, the sixth year of Jean Todt‘s management and Michael Schumacher‘s fourth season at Maranello: a Constructors’ World Championship that ended a total drought at Ferrari lasting 16 championships.
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Brick by brick, Todt rebuilt a team in disarray and gave new life to a discouraged environment. The decisive year was 1996, when he brought the then two-time world champion to Maranello thanks to a lightning deal: the two signed the contract in a single day.
Todt’s words
“Within a team, often the chassis and engine engineers blame each other and eventually end up saying that there are no drivers. So I made sure that no one could say we lacked a driver. Michael was the best, we discussed with him in mid-1995 and then we spent a day in Monte-Carlo with our lawyer Henri Peter and his manager Willy Weber. After one day, we signed the contract“, these are the words of the Frenchman to High Performance. “I think he thought that driving for Ferrari would be something different. He liked challenges“.
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Twelve months later, Todt secured – again from Benetton – the other two decisive market moves, Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne: “Michael was very curious, and very professional. He didn’t want to commit to Ferrari without guarantees. So I contacted Ross for the position of technical director and Rory to offer him the role of chief designer at the same time. Both had worked with Michael at Benetton. Brawn and Byrne didn’t know I had contacted both of them, but of course Michael was aware of it. And that’s how, little by little, we rebuilt the team“.
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