Chapter Text
Act I.
The American Culture Shock.
Chapter I.
Out of the Frying Pan...
An irreversible decision.
That's what it was in the end, how could it be anything else though? When Ferrari comes calling, you don't refuse. That is especially true when you're an Italian, and the love for Ferrari flows through your veins. Still, holding the notice in my hands, hearing that my superlicense had been revoked - mere months after scoring a podium at the 1987 Belgian Grand Prix - it was harsh. It also meant that there was no going back, if this American adventure didn't work out, then the door was firmly closed on a European return. Of course there had been no guarantee that Brabham would continue for 1988 anyway, and besides my podiums at Detroit in 1986 and Spa this year, the story of my time at Brabham has been defined by technical issues and crashes. Outdated BMW turbocharged engines getting pushed beyond their limit as an aging design was forced to compete with the best that Honda could offer. So then, two prominent finishes and a sea of DNFs didn't mean that I was going to be given countless offers for F1 in 1988 anyway. Truth be told, the move to Ferrari and their burgeoning American operation probably saved my career.
It was the same for Freddie, I would imagine. Carter had driven for the likes of Tyrrell, Ligier, Renault, and Alfa Romeo, but when the Italian marque pulled out of F1 at the end of 1985, he didn't have many promising prospects either. There were only so many competitive seats in Europe - the golden era of the Cosworth DFV acting as the great equalizer was over, now it was the question of which turbocharged engine could produce the most power and do so for the longest. Alfa Romeo's engine hadn't been all that reliable, and neither were the BMWs I had to deal with. So then, an experienced American driver, raised in Rome and thus fluent in Italian, and myself, a young Italian driver whose shown flashes of brilliance in a difficult car under difficult circumstances. In some ways, we were the ideal picks for Ferrari's Indycar program. We were both good enough that, with proper machinery, we should be able to do the brand proud, yet simultaneously, we were not so great that Ferrari would rather see what we could do for their Formula One team.
Of course, that was the paradox of the whole thing.
Where exactly were we in the Ferrari hierarchy? That was the question nobody seemed to have an answer for. We all knew that Ferrari wanted to win in Indianapolis, that much was clear, but did he want to win Indianapolis more than he wanted to win the World Championship? And what measure was the championship in CART? Did that even matter to him, or was Indianapolis the prize? Nobody seemed to have a clear answer. What was clear is that the last thing Enzo Ferrari wanted was this program to be an embarrassment. Shrewd enough to realize we lacked oval experience, Freddie Carter's car was not introduced until Road America, after the three 500-mile races of Indianapolis, Pocono, and Michigan. Meanwhile, my first races were going to be later on - partially because I had only just left my seat in F1, but also because the second 637 hadn't been prepared to run at the short oval of Nazareth - entering the final two races of the season at Laguna Seca and Miami.
"The car is ready." my race engineer, Giuseppino Bianco, informed me. Alright then, I sighed to myself. I was out of F1, my chances of going back were now severed, and I was about to drive this car in a pressurized environment for the first time. Testing at Fiorano back in Italy was one thing, but today? I was going to be on the actual CART circuit, all the teams, all the drivers, and my teammate as the first line of comparison. There were plenty of fans out there in the California sun waiting to see how the Ferrari team was going to do. The rumblings started in 1985, they first saw the car in 1986, and now in 1987, Ferrari was here, and the whole world's expectations were upon us. If that wasn't enough pressure to start with, Porsche was debuting their program here too, and while neither team was reasonably expected to be winners right away, people were very eager to see which of the European giants had got it right. I was out of the frying pan that was racing in Europe, only to drop directly into the fire that is racing in the United States.
Sixth at Road America, tenth at Mid-Ohio, and eleventh at our first oval race in Nazareth - albeit in a race where only fifteen cars managed to finish - were the results that Freddie had managed thus far. Nothing earth-shattering, but Carter demonstrated that we had a respectably competitive car on road courses and the foundation to be competitive, so as I worked my way up to speed in practice, I knew that I had to target the top ten. Anything less than that would be unacceptable. There was a modicum of patience for us, as the team was treating the end of 1987 as a test session ahead of a proper debut next year, but it was still Ferrari. All the experience, expertise, and pedigree meant that we couldn't just lose to what were essentially privateer teams running March or Lola chassis.
So, coming out of the slow and tight final corner, I aimed my car down the straight and put my foot down for a fast lap. I heard whine of the boost behind me as the turbocharged 2.65L V8 behind me roared to life, while I swung the car to the left and up the hill, following the lines of the not-very-straight straight. Laguna Seca, true to its name, was built along the hills surrounding a dry lakebed, and that made for precious few truly straight sections of track. Nevertheless, this part of the track was fast. As I crested the hill and crossed the start-finish line, I clutched in with my left foot and shifted up to fifth, hearing the engine behind me climb through its powerband again as I dived down the rest of the straight, the first two corners in my sight now. a fast flick to the left with the track cambered in beneath me meant that turn one was an effortless corner, and the same could be said about turn two as well, flicking onto the left onto another straight as the track evened out beneath me. Pretty much at the lowest level of the circuit, the track now began to climb again. Taking advantage of the long stretch of straight ahead of me, here I finally shifted up to my top fear - sixth. An engineering challenge of Indycar was designing a gearbox versatile enough to handle the long ratios necessary for a superspeedway race and the shorter gearing of some of these short, fast American road and street courses.
Speaking of compromises, I lifted as I reached the third left-hand flick in a row with turn three. On a proper qualifying lap with low fuel, hot tyres, and a sufficient amount of bravery, turn three could be just about flat out - especially with the F1-derived downforce package Ferrari was running - but on my first lap of the weekend? I wasn't ready yet. I was back on the throttle quickly enough, as the climb uphill accelerated after turn three. Cresting the hill, I passed beneath the bridge and got onto the brakes. Right foot on the brake and left on the clutch, I worked my way all the way down to second, turn left and tapping my heel on the throttle, not only matching revs but also keeping the turbo from spooling down completely - for all the faults of the late BMW engine I had to contend with in F1, it gave me plenty of experience with highly turbo-dependent engines - and then gradually getting off of the brake and onto the throttle entirely as I accelerated onto the straight at the top of the circuit. Climbing just a bit more at this stage, I shifted up to fourth, not bothering to climb all the way up the gearbox as the power was sufficient for the stretch between turn four and the defining feature of the track ahead: the corkscrew.
I was already on the brakes and the downshifts for the corkscrew whilst turn five flicked me to the right. This was one of two places on the track where I shifted all the way down to first, because the tight turn six to the left was quite literally dropping down a cliff. Not only that, but as I dropped, the track swung back to the right for a corner the Americans annoyingly decided to label as 6a. Ignoring the mysteries of American corner-numbering for the time being, I accelerated out of the corkscrew and onto the briefest of straights, working my way up to third gear before tapping my brakes ever so slightly, lifting off the throttle, and turning the car to the left yet again. I had scarcely hit the apex before I was on the throttle again, making sure the turbocharger didn't spool down, and worked my way back up to fourth through the brief straight that followed, before braking again for the penultimate corner. Bleeding off speed and coming down to second gear before making the ninety-degree right, I arrived onto the short chute between the last two corners. With the pitlane entry on my left, I stayed on track, giving it a burst of speed before braking again and shifting all the way down to first for just the second time all lap for the final corner. Winding my way to the right, getting off the brake, and onto the power, I was right back to where I was at the beginning of the lap. Funny how going around in circles works.
"Good lap, good lap. Carter is faster in turn three and turn seven, you are faster down the straight. Are you comfortable with the downforce?" Bianco asked after over the radio after I completed a number of fast laps and started working my way back towards the pits. Carter was faster in the corners that were faster but still required finesse, whereas I was faster in the fastest parts of the lap. That implied that I'm running less wing that my teammate, which could lead to me being faster on a qualifying lap if I managed to use up tyres and mash the boost enough to make up for my setup's deficiencies, over the course of a race though, this setup was going to work against me. As tyres wear down the corners are going to become increasingly miserable for me, but when I'm on fresh tyres, I'll also be heavy with fuel, meaning the car will handle worse and sheer momentum will work against me in the turns. The good thing about Indycar though was that there was an additional practice session before the race, the morning warmup session, so I could work on one setup for qualifying and then a higher downforce setup for the race. I master the qualifying setup at the end of practice and then set my grid position with it, then I get used to the race setup and make any final adjustments the morning before the race.
I was growing used to the car and growing used to the format, now it was just time to see what I could really do. My superlicense revoked and my old team Brabham probably on their way out as well meant that I had no choice but to perform in America.
"Of course the championship battle isn't the only thing worth looking out for here in Laguna Seca - there's also the battle between the two European giants: Porsche vs. Ferrari. Porsche has unveiled their Quaker State machine here today, but they've already made waves by signing Ed Unser Sr. fresh off his record-equaling fourth Indianapolis 500 victory for Roger Penske. So, Porsche has the big-name talent, but it was Ferrari who drew first blood with American Formula One star Freddie Carter Jr. making his PPG Indycar World Series debut in Road America and scoring points in every race since then. The Ferrari hasn't quite gotten up to the leader's speed yet, but with rock solid reliability and the introduction of their second car here today - driven by Vincenza Taghzouti here in her CART debut - this may just be the breakthrough weekend for Ferrari." the TV reporter, Jason Spencer introduced me as part of the pre-race coverage "Vincenza, what's the plan for today?"
"The plan is pretty simple: we want to move forward." I answered into the microphone "I'm happy to have outqualified my teammate but thirteenth and sixteenth is not where we want to be. The people expect more from Ferrari and they have every right to because the car is good - it's reliable like you said - and we're better than our starting positions would suggest."
"Can you get both cars into the points today?" Spencer asked.
"Yes, absolutely. Exactly how many points depends on what happens around us, but we absolutely should be able to move forward." I answered. This was my first race with the Ferrari 637, but from my testing with it at Fiorano, our work at the US base, and what I've experienced on track thus far this weekend, I know this car. Robbie Rahal and the Truesports team came to Italy after the 1985 season and told Ferrari everything we needed to know, even presenting us with a March chassis to work on. Since then, Ferrari has meticulously reverse engineered that chassis and paired it with a 2.65L turbocharged V8, that power going through four tyres courtesy of Goodyear, the company that supplies Ferrari in both F1 and now CART. We have spent the past two years, practically, getting this car together, and while it's impossible to gauge pace exactly relative to a constantly moving target an ocean away, what was obvious was how often the car was blowing up. Thus, Ferrari built us a very reliable car to use, a stable foundation, and that already put us ahead of the Porsche. The problem now was to unlock the pace and potential within the 637, because we were now in the same paddock as the competition, going head-to-head, and that meant there was no room for excuses anymore.
The fact that this was a new program, and we only just got the second car going now gave us a bit of leeway, but not all that much. Like i said, Ferrari certainly has high expectations, and qualifying like Carter and I have today? That simply isn't good enough.
"Five minutes Vincenza!" Giuseppino Bianco called out and I snapped out of my thoughts. It was race day now - qualifying was over and any last second adjustments in morning warmup were already over and done - and within five minutes, I needed to be ready to leave the garage and get onto the grid. So, first things first, I set out putting my helmet on. A relatively simple design, it was a yellow helm with a band of black stripes going around, and on either side of the helmet, superimposed over the band, was the black prancing horse. The Ferrari badge itself on its forehead, the title sponsor Momo appearing on either side of it, and a ribbon across the top of my visor showing sponsorship from Marlboro. Philip Morris was a secondary sponsor for us though, appearing just on our red race suits and on the side of our cars' cockpit, devoting the full Marlboro chevron paint scheme for the Patrick Racing entry of Brazilian former F1 champion Eduardo Wojciechowski.
Helmet on, my gloves followed - with a similar yellow and black theme to them - before I climbed into the car itself. The deep red base color, the big black wings on either end, and a healthy dose of yellow in the livery courtesy of Momo, Agip, and of course Goodyear all acting as sponsors. Racing accessories, oil companies, and tyres were all rather normal fair for a racing team, but we had a handful of other partners as well: Marlboro was already mentioned, but besides that, Pioneer was another prominent sponsor. The Japanese electronics company promoting their LaserDisc product with a black bisected typeface on our engine cover. Series title sponsor PPG, and associate sponsors Weber, Magneti Marelli, and Farrari's sister brand Alfa Romeo all had a minor presence on the car as well, but the two most prominent features on the nose were a crossed pair of flags - Italian and American - symbolizing the team here in America, and just below that, my racing number. 26, meaning that, with Carter's #25, and the F1 team's #27 and #28, Ferrari now had an armada of scarlet red single-seaters with four consecutive numbers.
"Any last words of encouragement?" I looked across the garage to see Freddie Carter, my teammate, suiting up as well, ready to get out there.
"Ignore the media," Freddie began "The car doesn't care that it's a Ferrari, it doesn't care that the fans are out there to see the red team. You care about that stuff, the car doesn't. That means all you can do is drive to the best of your ability. It's a reliable, conservative car while also being very European, it can get you good points, but you're not gonna turn this car into a winner right away."
"Okay," I nodded after a moment before getting into my car. Part of me wanted to argue, to say that Carter had a defeatist attitude and that was the quickest way to ensure we don't make it up front, but I had to acknowledge his point. It's not like we could blame rain or weird conditions in qualifying for why we're thirteenth and sixteenth, respectively, rather that's simply the pace we had. Today the conditions are similar, but the good news is that it's a long race in the California heat, so plenty can happen, and all signs point to our car being a survivor. Moving forward based on reliability isn't exactly the Ferrari way, but it's the move we have at our disposal.
"Verde, verde, verde!" Giuseppino shouted over the radio as the green flag came out to begin the Champion Spark Plug 300K at Laguna Seca. With a rolling start and a traditional flag rather than the start lights of Formula One - combined with the hilly and uneven starting line at this track - I very much appreciated the instruction from my race engineer. Spooling up the turbo and speeding through the first few corners heavy on fuel and surrounded by cars, each one was quite a bit slower and needed more of a lift than on my qualifying lap. Being on the inside gave me somewhat of an advantage as I tried to follow the black and white Provimi car of Joeri Dijkstra, hoping to stick with him and get a draft down to the first real hard braking zone at the top of the hill in turn four. It was a different story up front though, where the front-row lockout of father-and-son for the Andretti family went the way of the younger Anthony. Anthony Andretti in his yellow and blue Kraco car getting the jump on his father Antonio in the #5 Newman/Haas car.
Being on a partial schedule, it didn't matter much to me, but Anthony was trying to keep the championship battle with Robbie Rahal alive. Unfortunately for the heir to the Andretti name, Rahal was on their heels in third place and was a master at this track, having won the last three races here consecutively. Anthony had more wins so far, winning at the ovals of Milwaukee, Michigan, and Nazareth, while Rahal has two wins to his name - Portland and Meadowlands - but also has consistency on his side. From Milwaukee to Michigan, Rahal scored five podiums in a row, including the two aforementioned wins, and comes into this race off the back of a pair of second places. Anthony Andretti needs to win the race and needs Rahal to drop back a few places just to take the championship fight to the final race in Miami, let alone winning it. I was still a far way off the battle for the lead though, having only worked my way up to eleventh on the first lap. Freddie was doing somewhat better in comparison, having come from sixteenth to thirteenth, with just the Machinists Union car of Juanma Garcia between us now.
I doubted Enzo Ferrari was going to be particularly impressed by us fighting with such names as Machinists Union Racing or Hemelgarn, but that was the pace we had available to us. In the meantime, though, there was something we could be proud of - the much talked-about Porsche in the hands of Ed Unser only made it seven laps before losing a water pump and needing to retire. Whatever happens now, our primary goal was successful - we beat the other European giant - so any criticism of our pace will be cut with the fact that our biggest rival is even worse off. The likes of Penske, Kraco, Newman/Haas, Truesports, and Patrick are out of reach for Ferrari at the moment, but we've made our debut, we've demonstrated competitive pace, and we got two cars into the race while Porsche couldn't even get their own car to last seven laps. Speaking of failing to last, at the same time, electrical issues started eating away at Anthony Andretti's car. The Kraco driver dropped behind his father, then behind Rahal, and then kept dropping further down the field.
I passed Anthony Andretti on the straight between turns two and three. He clearly didn't have the pace and was probably going to retire any lap now, but could you blame him? He was in the middle of a championship battle, desperately clawing at survival, only for his car to let him down. Of course he wants to fight it, he barely wants to believe all of this is even happening. I emphasized with the American, but soon had to turn my attention back to the car. Settling into the stint and now sitting within the top ten, I focused on keeping the car balance to my liking. Between the turbo boost, the anti-roll bars, and the suspension springs, there was plenty of adjustment available to the driver at will. As the fuel burned off and the car became faster, I tried to lean into that, knowing that the car was raising up with the weight reducing and using the tools to keep it pressed down into the ground. It wasn't quite the ground effect monsters of F1 earlier in the decade, but the floor still played an aerodynamic role, one that I was trying to maximize. So, playing with the settings, I started making the car hunker down on the straights to reduce the drag profile, while raising up on the corners, trying to keep a preferable balance over the combination of bumps and uneven terrain.
Gradually working the car to take on more of the cornering load as the tyres wore out, I felt like I was beginning to understand the way that a CART Indycar works, but when new race leader Antonio Andretti - having inherited it when his son dropped and eventually retired from the lead - came around to lap me, I was beginning to appreciate the advice that Freddie Carter gave me. Yes, it's a Ferrari, yes, the expectations are high, but if Antonio is lapping me this early into a race with a minute long lap, then the Ferrari simply doesn't have the pace to keep up with the leading cars. From what Freddie has experienced and from what I can tell from the testing I did at Fiorano before coming over to America, the 637 is consistent, reliable, produces a sizable amount of downforce - adapting F1 aero means that Ferrari has perhaps the most advanced aerodynamic package on the road and street courses, at least in theory - however, we are definitely lacking in speed and experience.
As the 1978 Formula One World Champion disappeared into the distance after the first few corners, I wondered what exactly our problem was: were we not pushing the engine hard enough? That could explain our comparative reliable, but we're used to running turbocharged engines from F1, so it's not like this can be massively different, especially considering that F1 drivers have, for the most part, adapted well to CART. The aerodynamics then - are we perhaps running too much downforce? We were already running less downforce on my car than on Freddie's, but Antonio definitely had a speed advantage down the straights. Of course with boost level, the weight of the fuel, and the different characteristics between my Ferrari and Andretti's Chevrolet-powered March, we couldn't be sure if that was all down to setup or not. It was definitely going to be something to test over the winter, especially when Robbie Rahal in a Cosworth-powered Lola dispatched me with similar ease. This program was still in its infancy, it was my first race, but no one was quite satisfied with this level of performance.
"Box box, box this lap!" Giuseppino Bianco eventually radioed in. Roughly ten laps after the front duo had lapped me, the fuel started burning off nicely and the car finally felt like it was in its element - down the back straight I could see Rahal's car getting closer each time he crested the hill and dove down into the hairpin, making me feel like I had half a chance of getting my lap back - that was a symptom of a purely temporary situation though. The car being light and fast meant that the tank was going empty, and with plenty of race left to go, I had to make my first stop of the race. Turning right into the penultimate corner and then drifting off to the left, taking to the pitlane entry on the inside of the final corner. Braking, turning left, and then giving it a squirt of throttle as I tried to execute my half of the pitstop as quickly as possible. Slowing down came in stages, first bleeding off speed as a few cars that pit before me exited out onto the track, then slowing further as I dashed left into the inner lane, finally coming to a stop as I pulled into the #26 box. Up on the jacks, my crew got to work, replacing all four Goodyear tyres and filling the car up with Agip fuel. Keeping my eyes pressed on the lollipop in front of me, my car dropped down - the tyres were ready, now I was just waiting on fuel - once filled, the lollipop went up and I clutched in and pulled away, working my way through the box as I sped down the rest of pitlane and got up to a competitive speed as I rejoined the track. One pitstop down, one to go.
The gearing was another thing that could be holding us back, I thought while on my outlap. These American teams have plenty of experience here, they know the tracks, and they know just how to setup the gear ratios to make the most out of each one. Ferrari, not having raced on an oval since Indianapolis in the 1950s, was thus relearning this aspect of Indycar racing. The gearbox has to work for road and street circuits like Laguna Seca and Long Beach, and ovals like Nazareth or even the bigger tracks like Indianapolis, Michigan, and Pocono. With those tracks, it's not so much about shifting as it is about having a gearbox set up to accelerate up to those speeds. So many different demands for just six gears and a stick in the cockpit.
"Where is Carter?" I asked as I settled into the stint, trying to get my bearings on the situation after that stop.
"Carter is ahead, we are eleventh, push for the top ten." Giuseppino answered. He could've told me where exactly Carter was or how far ahead he was, but instead he just told me that Freddie is somewhere ahead of me and that I should be focusing on getting a top ten. I at least know that Carter isn't at the very front of the field because he hasn't lapped me yet. Helpful or not, a top ten in my Indycar debut would be an excellent way to start off this American adventure - even if it does seem like it's going to be a harder endeavor than either I or Ferrari had wanted to believe - so I started chasing down the MacHoward Leasing March-Cosworth of Jack MacAllister for Galles Racing. A Ferrari couldn't well finish behind a car sponsored by a no-name leasing company, after all.
With a target in sight and Laguna having a short lap time, the race now seemed to fly by. It took me twenty laps to break within a second of MacAllister, and by the time I really got to his rear wing, he tore into the pits, and I followed after him. The wasn't a speed limiter in the pits, nevertheless I still felt like Jack and I were really pushing it when we raced to our individual pitboxes. I was a young Italian driver, and the only woman in CART this year, so sitting in a Ferrari seat, I felt the need to perform. A top ten felt like it was doing the bare minimum. For MacAllister though, he's been given a ride in the second car for Galles Racing, a CART stalwart, and he is fighting hard to keep his place there as the team looks to move away from the fuel efficient and reliable yet down-on-power Judd/Honda engine program. MacAllister himself has a Cosworth engine at this point in the season, while his teammate Brabham persists with the Judd, so both are trying to set a benchmark. Jack is well behind right now though, and as we raced out of the pits, he was going to have his hands full with me. We only needed half a tank of fuel to finish out this race and my pit crew executed the stop flawlessly, meaning I was in the inner lane with my front axle alongside MacAllister's rear. I tried to pull alongside and even ahead, but the American accelerated harder to block the move, eventually forcing me to tuck in behind as the two lanes narrowed into one and rejoined the track. He knew I was right behind him though, and I was eager to work my way into the top ten.
"Antonio Andretti is out, Antonio Andretti is out of the race." Giuseppino radioed in as we battled on our outlap. Both Andrettis had led today, and both retired with engine failures, with Antonio having led over sixty laps only to fail as we reached the last stint of the race. Thus, up front Rahal was poised to win both the race and the championship, but I was more concerned with my own battle. Chasing MacAllister out of the final corner, I was in his draft down the main straight, riding the rollercoaster of the hills as I gave chase. I peeked inside in turn one but with the quick turn and the barriers on either side, I didn't press the matter there. These little darts and moments were less about actual passing and more about making sure that the driver ahead was watching his mirrors like a hawk. The idea was that MacAllister would be so busy trying to defend that he'd make a mistake and let me by. That didn't happen yet, but I didn't mind, as the following straight gave me the chance to draft right up to the back of MacAllister again, following him as we dashed left through turn three and climbed up the hill. This is where I decided to make my move.
Taking to the left, I sent it inside of MacAllister, pushing him out onto the exit kerb as I asserted myself and took the corner. Slowing to make sure he kept on the track, Jack was more or less forced to give up the position. Not only did this put me ahead, but it also shook up his moment up the top of the circuit, meaning I had nothing to worry about going into the corkscrew. Following that, finally getting some clean air in the final few corners - combined with the fact that, this late in the race, the fuel was getting pretty light as well - I was able to break away completely. Andretti retiring put me up into tenth place anyway, so this move meant that I was now running in ninth. Four laps off the lead and a lap behind my teammate - Carter hadn't actually lapped me, but Rahal had managed to put me a fourth lap down and didn't make it to Freddie for the fourth time before the race ended - the last few laps of the race left me with little more to do than to coast home to the finish. From thirteenth to ninth in my very first CART race, I crossed the line to receive the checkered flag.
The points-paying results of the 1987 Champion Spark Plug 300K at Laguna Seca thus read as follows:
1: Robbie Rahal - Medina, Ohio - #1 Budweiser Truesports Lola-Cosworth - 20 points.
2: Roy O'Sullivan - Louisville, Kentucky - #3 Miller American Penske Racing March-Chevrolet - 16 points.
3: Mike Reece - Wichita, Kansas - #8 Pennzoil Z-7 Penske Racing March-Chevrolet - 14 points.
4: Ed Unser Jr. - Albuquerque, New Mexico - #30 Domino's Pizza Shierson Racing March-Cosworth - 12 points.
5: Godfrey Brabham - Sydney, Australia - #15 Valvoline Galles Racing March-Judd/Honda - 10 points.
6: Joeri Dijkstra - Sommelsdijk, Netherlands - #71 Provimi Veal Hemelgarn Racing March-Cosworth - 8 points.
7: Freddie Carter - Phoenix, Arizona - #25 Scuderia Ferrari Momo Ferrari - 6 points.
8: Juanma Garcia - Mexico City, Mexico - #55 Scheafer Machinists Union Racing March-Cosworth - 5 points.
9: Vincenza Taghzouti - Piacenza, Italy - #26 Scuderia Ferrari Momo Ferrari - 4 points.
10: Jack MacAllister - Santa Ana, California - #11 MacHoward Leasing Galles Racing March-Cosworth - 3 points.
11: Stephen Dunlop - Toronto, Canada - #56 Genesee Beer Wagon March-Cosworth - 2 points.
12: Duane Patrick Jr. - Racine, Wisconsin - #29 Hardee's Machinist Union Racing March-Cosworth - 1 point.
...
RET - Antonio Andretti - Nazareth, Pennsylvania - #5 Hanna Car Warsh Newman/Haas Racing Lola-Chevrolet - 1 point for Pole Position + 1 point for Leading the Most Laps.
A double top team to open the season for Scuderia Ferrari. It's not exactly what any of us would've hoped and dreamed for, but it's a solid result, and Porsche's brief and troubled debut shows that it could've been much worse. Fundamentally, Ferrari has expanded into a two car team and had both cars score good points in a race before Porsche finished eight racing laps. They had the talent of Ed Unser Sr., yes, but the old veteran wasn't enough to make their car work today. Two-time F1 World Champion Eduardo Wojciechowski also retired in his Marlboro entry, both Andrettis - father and son - as well of course, and more Chevy powered cars retired than actually finished. Altogether I have to admit it was a successful first race, if nothing spectacular. So, I was expecting a fairly positive atmosphere as I pulled into Scuderia Ferrari America headquarters in Orange County, California.
Yes, Orange County, not exactly the hotbed of American motorsports. Initially, it seemed like perhaps the Ferrari team was going to be based in Ohio, near Truesports, as that team had, at the request of Goodyear, provided Ferrari with a chassis and with the services of Robbie Rahal, who twice came over to Fiorano, first demonstrating Truesports' March chassis after 1985, and then testing the subsequent 637 the following winter. To further complicate matters, it seems that Truesports was actually under the impression that they would be the ones running the factory-backed Ferrari program. I don't know if Ferrari said anything that gave Truesports that impression, or if the Americans simply assumed that on their own, but in the end, Ferrari was always going to do business the Ferrari way. To that end, Enzo decried that the CART program would be a fully in-house operation, and said that "When people think of Ferrari, they do not think of Ohio, they think of Miami, of Hollywood." So il Commendatore decided, and so it would be done - fortunately for us, Orange County was close enough to Hollywood to satisfy his criteria.
To further add insult to injury, before completely breaking ties with Truesports, Ferrari stole away a number of prominent figures from the team, winning them over with generous salaries, the promise of living in sunny southern California, and, of course, the fact that they'd be working for the juggernaut that is Ferrari. Another American contingent came from Dan Gurney's Eagle team. Having left the CART Indycar series in favor of IMSA some years ago, the Santa Ana based All-American Racers meant that Orange County did actually have some big-name motorsports talent, and there, Ferrari was able to swoop in for those who had already moved out west but wished to continue working the CART circuit. Then there was the third and perhaps most prominent faction within the team: the Italian faction. That was perhaps an oversimplification, given that, in addition to Italians, this group included Frenchmen, Englishmen, Rhodesians, and a South African, but these men were career Ferrari men, experienced in the world of Formula One, brought over to form the core of the team. Having this many distinct camps under the pressure of performing for Ferrari has naturally produced some tension, but hopefully now the fact that we had two cars competing well on the circuit, we could start pushing forward together.
"Well, that doesn't make any goddamn sense!" and I cringed immediately as I entered the main garage just to hear the loud, booming American voice of John Milley - one of the aforementioned Truesports men, having a high position in the team as he was tasked with preparing the cars for the unique demands of each current - yelling in the face of Thibault Gautier, a Frenchman who more or less acted as the link in the chain between the team here in California, and Ferrari back in Maranello.
"The dampers won't be ready for Miami, but we will have them for next season." Gautier answered, sounding like he's been explaining this for awhile. John took a few steps back, leaning on a toolbox, and ran his hand down his face, trying to calm himself down before coming back up to the Frenchman.
"They're not for next seasons, they're for Miami!" he explained, adding in hand gestures like he was explaining this to a child "Our street circuits have bumpy roads and mixed surfaces - asphalt, concrete, whatever - I've said this from day one - Luca knows because he's been there with me - now we're coming up to the one and only street race we're running this season, and you're telling me they can't meet my one goddamn request?"
"Ferrari is a busy organization with plenty to do. I'm sure March and Lola don't get their teams everything they want either." Thibault shot back while Luca, an Italian engineer, scurried away, not wanting to be dragged into this on either side.
"There's a difference there and you know it. The March and Lola teams have existing data, setups, things they can draw from. Everything we're doing here is new, we can't just run last year's setup when we don't have new parts." John shot back, at this point more exasperated than angry "And besides, dampers are more on a team side over there, something we should be able to build here."
"And we will be able to, soon." Giuseppino Bianco, the race engineer for my car, inserted. He also gave me a wave when I turned to him, as much of a welcome as I was going to get in the midst of all this, it seems.
"I keep hearing that, doesn't seem to be happening though." John Milley sighed. He wanted this to work, the position was better, the money was better, and he already went through the trouble of moving his family out here, but in moments like this, I can't help but think that it would've been less stressful for him to remain with Truesports - as stress-free as motorsports can be, anyway - especially given Robbie Rahal, whose car he was working on as recently as last year, is now champion again. He gave up on the easy path of short-term success in the hopes of, in the long term, being the man who turned Ferrari's Indycars into winners, but at times like this, I can see how it might feel like the mistake of a lifetime. For all the hires and the posturing, we're effectively a brand-new team with a brand-new car and brand-new engine, and it's going to take us a lot of time to meet the world's high expectations. If we ever do...that ninth place finish suddenly isn't feeling like all that much.
"Okay!" and then our attention turned to the team principal, Cesare Beneventi, emerging from his office, clasping his hands as he spoke to the team assembled in front of him, wearing a smile "I have just gotten off the phone with Mr. Ferrari. He is pleased to see the successful debut of our second car, courtesy of Ms. Taghzouti. He is very pleased with how we performed relative to Porsche, and he hopes that now with both cars in the field, we can take another step forward in Miami." Beneventi continued, smiling slightly as his speech - which definitely focused on the more positive aspects of the phone call - failed to get the kind of reaction from the crowd that he was hoping for.
"We just got two cars out and Tamiami is a completely different track, and he's already raising expectations!" another American, Eddie Petersson, scoffed. Eddie was a California native, having previously worked on the pit crew for All-American Racers, he's now the senior refueler for my car.
"Now, now, come on, this is a cause for celebration!" Beneventi tried to bring us back together, but judging by the reaction in the room, nobody was particularly receptive to this argument. Even the members of the Italian faction who could usually be trusted to side with Beneventi seemed too exhausted to do so after witnessing Milley's blowout argument earlier and now this uninspiring speech "Il Commendatore is happy, he thinks we can improve, and he has faith in you! Have some faith in him and come together, we can finish the season strong and move into next year as a real competitor."
"We got the people, but we're going to need the ability to do more here. We need to be making parts here and as much as we can, not just twiddling our thumbs waiting for them to ship in from Maranello." John Milley decided, calming down a bit, and making a more reasoned call for the exact thing that he's been asking for. March and Lola probably have their issues too - and even the Penske's in-house chassis program is run out of their old F1 base in England rather than the United States - but we have the misfortune of both being a new program and having this divide between the people building the car and the people racing it. Even Penske, with all their experience and fame, has experienced a lot of difficulty with their chassis program and, these past few years, has had to lean rather heavily on their backup March chassis. I don't know the exact numbers off the top of my head, but I'm almost certain Penske has run more races in 1986 and 1987 in customer March cars than in their own cars. Hell, Ed Unser Sr. won the Indy 500 this year in a 1986 specification March with a Cosworth engine for a team that's supposed to be running a Penske chassis and Chevrolet engine. I'm sure March and Lola have their own problems, but we're trying to do something that Penske, the best in the business here in Indycar racing, are struggling with themselves. Oh well, there's too much pride on the line to dwell on this for too long, because there's no reality where Ferrari submits itself to running another company's chassis.
In any case, the base gave me a clear impression going into the end of the season: our car isn't terrible, but for the born and bred American Indycar veterans we've hired, the way we do things leaves a lot to be desired.
"What is this?" Freddie asked as a trio of drivers approached him in the drivers' briefing before the race.
"Just what the hell is your team boss trying to pull?" Ed Unser Jr. demanded.
"What do you mean?" Freddie asked, legitimately unknowing. I didn't know either, as I watched this from my seat nearby. The trio stopped themselves form surrounding me and instead went with Carter. I could guess why they made that decision, but, considering that I didn't particularly want to be cornered by three men to begin with, I'm not about to argue sexism in this case.
"Beneventi went to the team owners and made a stink about letting your cars into the Challenge. The bosses explained to him that neither of you were eligible, but he kept throwing his weight around like he owns the place." Roy O'Sullivan explained, clearly the calmest of the three, especially now since he saw that Carter wasn't privy to this. The Challenge in question was the Marlboro Challenge, Indycar's version of the typical American all-star game. Here the top ten drivers from the season - decided on first by wins, then poles, and then points if there aren't enough to fill the ten slots - race each other for a $1 million bonus just before the final race of the season.
"Who does he think he is? He's been here all of twelve seconds and he thinks he can pull this shit?" Keith Cooper added. Keith was definitely the angriest of the bunch, and that was purely on principal, given that the backmarker wasn't exactly making the race either way.
"Look fellas, I don't know anything about this, I didn't ask for it, I haven't said a word about it to Beneventi. Besides, you think I want to run the Challenge? With the car I have, I'd finish bottom half and have to answer two dozen media questions about how Ferrari can't win a race with ten cars in it. If you hear that Beneventi is trying to pull a fast one, be men about it and talk to him, the hell you hassling me for?" he explained before brushing them off, getting the unlikely trio to back off. They let Freddie pass and he came over to me, collapsing in his plastic chair, taking a deep sigh, and turning over to me "You hear anything about this?"
"No, why would I?" I asked, truthfully not knowing anything more than he did.
"I dunno, figured he might've let something slip to the golden girl." he leaned forward, elbows on his knees, hands holding his face up...he seemed tired. Going to Ferrari over a backmarker F1 team wasn't an offer he could refuse, even if it was for this new CART team that's been a learning experience for all of us. Still though, that backmarker F1 team would've at least come with less pressure, and that pressure is getting to all of us right now. The biggest brand in the world has come to Indycar racing...and what have we done? Yes, it's early days, and yes, it wouldn't be a series worth racing in if we could just win it right away, but there's a reason that Cesare's speech in the factory went as poorly as it did. We all know that we're not here to finish seventh and ninth, the last thing we need is Enzo Ferrari telling us he expects to see us do better in Miami. I understood that Freddie was upset, particularly after being confronted by his fellow drivers over some bullshit that he had nothing to do with, but that didn't mean that I was going to let him take it out on me.
"Golden girl?" I protested.
"Oh, come on, the Italian starlet picked out to drive for this team. The crossed flags on our cars? Yeah, you're Italy, I'm America, and we all know which one the team is going to pick every time." he vented. I got the impression that this wasn't necessarily how Freddie really felt - he was frustrated, and he was lashing out - but the fact that it even crossed his mind was something I wanted to nip in the bud.
"For the people where that really matters, I'm not Italian enough for them." I pointed out. Taghzouti may end in a vowel, but it wasn't an Italian surname, rather it was Arabic, courtesy of a French-Algerian father. My mother's Italian and I was born in Piacenza, so I consider myself Italian, and I proudly fly the flag, but in one of the most homogenous countries in Europe - which is ironic considering how heterogenous the Italians are - having that noticeable bit of outsider blood is always going to be a problem for some. I knew that representing Italy probably did me more favors in getting this seat than if I represented France, but to suggest that the team was going to go as far as to back my car over his? When I'm half an immigrant myself? I find that doubtful. No, Ferrari will back whichever driver will give them the chance of winning the fastest, and as much as I want that to be me, Carter has experience on his side.
"Look, I - " Freddie seemed like he was going to try and deescalate the argument anyway, but it didn't much matter when the drivers' briefing got underway, cutting the chit-chat between the various drivers and their cliques. Now the final race weekend of the season here at Tamiami Park was beginning in earnest.
"And crossing the line now, Robbie Rahal begins his final lap. Wins at Portland, the Meadowlands, and his fourth consecutive Laguna Seca win last time out has made Rahal the 1987 champion, now he's on course to win the Marlboro Challenge as well." Pete Post commentated as I watched the television feed of the Challenge, trying to get an idea of what Rahal could do that we couldn't. He was on the brakes almost as soon as he crossed the actual line, due to the fact that turn one - an acute angle, near-hairpin to the right, followed it immediately. Rahal came onto another short straight immediately afterwards. Tamiami was okay, but much like a lot of street tracks, particularly in America, it consisted of a lot of flat, ninety-degree turns and straights. There was only so much that could be done in a place like Florida that was famously flat to begin with and largely built in the era of the grid system.
"That's right Pete, but Rahal has not been without his challengers this season - or even today. Eduardo Wojciechowski stayed out longer than Rahal before his one and only pitstop, but Patrick Racing pulled a splash and dash to try and get him as close to Rahal as possible. Wojciechowski has been quick, but he's dropped off quick late in the race, and the question everyone has is - does Eduardo have enough fuel?" Tom Trenton, his partner in the booth, focused on the other storylines of the race, but I kept my attention on the leader as he turned left and then right through the ninety-degree corners of two and three. Accelerating out of three onto another straight, only to quickly get on the brakes for the chicane. Right for turn four, left in five, and then back right in six to get back onto the straight. The Lola-Cosworth seemed like such a stable combination in Rahal's hands, it was practically gliding across the same surface that felt like a nightmare on our cars - it seems John wasn't kidding about the suspension dampers, because he came from Truesports...he must have some idea of what Rahal is running, it had to come from somewhere.
Coming off the straight, Rahal entered the part of the park section of the track, the one that differed heavily from the traditional stereotype of American street circuits. Here, Rahal really swung it out to the right, riding the almost Curva Grande like turn seven onto the briefest of straights before the chicane. Float it right and then back to the left through the fast turns eight and nine, at which point the fast speeds meant he was pretty much already braking for the ninety-degree turn ten. I wish here that the camera feed could show me what he was doing in the car - I'd love to see his downshifts and get an idea of how that car is geared - but I wasn't so fortunate. I would have to settle for watching Robbie turn right onto the back straight. Speeding down the entire back length of the track was a purely academic affair, and then the eleventh and final corner was just a lift and a flick to the right onto the start-finish straight once more. With peak lap times under a minute and just eleven turns, it was a short and quick street circuit in the American fashion, and Rahal's winning lap, unfortunately, wasn't forthcoming with many answers.
What was clear is that he has a better car than I do, but I could've told you that to begin with. The elite of the CART field - your Robbie, your Antonio and Anthony Andretti, your Eduardo, your Ed Unser Jr., and your Penske drivers - all had a better car than the Ferraris, but we were perhaps in a middle ground between the elite and everyone else. Our car was technically solid and reliable, we just didn't have that extra step to truly be competitive. With our hires from Eagle and Truesports, we should have the people to do it, and Ferrari means we have essentially infinite money to play with, but as of now, we still haven't figured it out. Tamiami Park is this weekend, and with the all-star race complete, there was just qualifying, and the race left to go for 1987. We couldn't do much to affect our race here today, but we had to start thinking about what we're going to do differently for 1988. The pressure is mounting up, the expectations are mounting up as well, and with 88 being our first full season, we need to be better. Of course the problem is the competition isn't standing still either.
Truesports had to hire a lot of people to fill the gaps we put into their organization, so the whole Indycar field has felt the burden of our arrival. The teams, being the ones ultimately in charge of CART - hence Championship Auto Racing Teams - have been further aggravated by Cesare Beneventi's stunts to try and get us into the Marlboro Challenge. Beneventi came in, threw his weight around, pissed everyone off, and in the end didn't even get us into the Challenge race to begin with. Not only did it cause strife, but it caused strife for no reason. We're making enemies quicker than we're making progress, and the rest of the field is taking notice. Getting the Ferrari name into CART was a major coup for the American series, and even with Ferrari remaining in F1, the FIA has undoubtably taken notice. The superlicense ruling? Just the first shot across the bow, the first sign that Formula One isn't happy about CART potentially turning into a real rival. So the FIA is angry, the CART teams are angry, and as the little altercation in the driver's briefing demonstrates, the drivers are angry at us too. We've caused a lot of problems and if things don't turn around quickly, some people are going to start asking whether or not having Ferrari in their series is more trouble than it's worth.