The acquisition of Michael Schumacher for the 1996 season would become a catalyst of remarkable success for the Scuderia. Yet it would be four more years until the World Drivers Championship was secured after a long a painful road.
Dismayed with Peugeot's lack of commitment to F1, Frenchman Jean Todt left his compatriots to become team manager at Ferrari during 1993. He would be the first non-Italian to take the helm of the once illustrious mark. The team had suffered under the domination of McLaren and Williams throughout the 80's and early 90's, coupled with a lingering rawness from the loss of founder Enzo Ferrari in '88. The organisation seemed fragmented with the design office and chassis manufacturing taking place in the UK under John Barnard. This unusual arrangement came about with Barnard refusing to re-settle himself and his family in Italy. While Ferrari envisaged a small design operation, reluctance for composites to be manufactured in Italy saw it grow. The Englishman had also abolished the tradition of the mechanics being served bottles of wine during testing days, much to their annoyance!
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| John Barnard had bought innovation so far |
Todt attempted to increase efficiency and organisation under the immense pressure of the Tifosi, Italian press and bank-roller FIAT. However he successfully wooed Michael Schumacher with an unprecedented $60 million dollar contract over two years. At the time the UK operation had been fighting cost cutting from Todt, who then increased budget to facilitate the Schumacher drive. Barnard however was concerned this should "have been done three years earlier so that we'd have been fully ready when he arrived. That kind of thing really annoyed me".
When engine size regulations reduced from 3.5 litre to 3.0 litre in the previous season Ferrari were the only team to use a 12 cylinder. Even with the reduction in size the engine produced decent power and a glorious soundtrack to boot. However rivals Renault were more successfully demonstrating what could be done with two less pistons. Ferrari had already been testing a 10 cylinder unit that made the car quicker. Less peak power but more torque and driveability mean't quicker lap times, and the V10 layout was adopted for 1996.
Hopes of using their lightweight gearbox casing material from the previous harmonious twelve cylinder caught the team out. The heavy vibration from the naturally unbalanced engine caused fatigue cracks after the first race in Melbourne. Having to address this the team had to revert back to an early gearbox casing. Unfortunately for the F310 this had a major effect on handling, since the rear suspension was mounted to specific points on the casing designed for the older car. The result was poor rear end mechanical and aero grip. Schumacher's Irish team mate Eddie Irvine described driving as being "scared to turn the steering wheel...in half a second, a second you had no idea what it would do".
Issues with the rear end were also made worse by other aerodynamic disadvantages. Barnard and his team adopted the new regulations on bulky cockpit protection by the book. Alternatively rival Adrian Newey had found a loophole in regards to the rules defining the dimensions of the cockpit sides. They were defined externally but not cross sectional, therefore in theory only the edges of the cockpit had to comply. This resulted in his Williams FW18 adopting small 'winglets' to meet the rules and greatly improving aero efficiency. The Ferrari was also the last car to adopt the old conventional nose cone of yesteryear. All teams had now understood that a raised nosecone allowed for better airflow to the floor of the car yet a conservative approach didn't see the raised nosecone retrofitted later on in the season at Imola. The bulky outward appearance made the F310 look like an Indycar when compared to the sleek Newey Williams FW18.
From the off it became apparent that there were serious reliability issues with the car, suffering from a multitude of failures. Irvine took the brunt of this with a run of eight straight retirements in the first half of the season. This highlighted difficulties within the current organisational set up of the team. Jean Todt would address this for 1997 with the departure of the UK operation, reverting back to Ferrari under one roof.
Thankfully in light of the F310's serious shortcomings was a ray of light in the outstanding performance of Michael Schumacher. While Irvine struggled to keep the car pointing in the right direction Schumacher seemed to sadistically wrestle it into submission. Driving through the handling issues displayed amazing ability, with Irvine further commenting "He drove it to every milimeter of the road. I couldn't stand to get in it"
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| Schumacher's legendary Spanish rain dance |
This came a head with Schumacher's masterful display in the wet at Catalunya, winning with a dominant 45 seconds gap to Jean Alesi in the Benneton. He would go on to rack up 3 wins and finish 3rd in the Championship, enduring a considerable amount of retirements along the way. What seemed a dog of a car was well developed in the latter part of the season. The steering wheel was the first to feature the famous Ferrari 'Magnetino' switches and a display which soon would be adopted by the rest of the sport and Ferrari road cars. The F310 would become more competitive in revised form for 1997. Barnard would soon retire from the sport as the UK branch of Ferrari shut up shop. His ground breaking paddle-shift gearbox technology developed at his time at Ferrari revolutionised F1, leaving the F310 a blip on his successful career.
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