Formula One / Ralph Ellis / 21 March 2012 /

Ralph Ellis said it last week when talking up the McLarens' chances and he says it again now in assessing Fernando Alonso: a great driver is all very well but, if the car isn't up to it, he won't win.

It was in June 1923 that Countess Paolina, the mother of a WWI Italian flying ace, who had painted a prancing horse on the side of his airplane, met Enzo Ferrari and persuaded him to adopt the symbol on his sports cars as a tribute to her son.

Since then the big black stallion has come to represent the dream of pace, power and success - the badge that buzzes past you down the outside of the M1 on the back of a gleaming red monster.

But one race into the new F1 season and if the advertising standards authority are tempted to get involved they will want it replaced - by a giant carthorse! For if Jenson Button's smooth opening win of the season was the headline story of Sunday's Grand Prix in Melbourne, then the worrying sub plot was the dismal failure of Ferrari's opening race.

Neither Fernando Alonso nor Felipe Massa made it to the third part of qualifying. On race day itself Massa retired from 13th place after a collision with Bruno Senna - while only the brilliance of Alonso managed to nurse a fifth placed points finish from a car in which he was clearly battling to handle a mixture of lack of pace with difficult handling.

It is already nothing short of a crisis for the Italian team. Team principal Stefano Domenicali admitted: "We have fundamental issues. One is the speed, and the other is the traction." Which is a bit like a football manager saying he has only two things wrong which is his team can't score goals and also keep letting them in.

An entire industry back home depends on maintaining the prancing horse image. Red Bull are basically a drinks team with a fast car. McLaren have always been a pure racing outfit who have only just branched out into producing a road version. Ferrari as a business depends on maintaining their brand as the ultimate dream machine.

Just to underline the concerns, team principal Stefano Domenicali and his technical director Pat Fry have both flown from Melbourne to this week's race in Malaysia via the team's HQ in Maranello. Ferrari president Luca de Montezemolo is celebrating his 21st year at the helm this season and wanted to come of age as a winner, not trailing down the grid. Even Ferrari's own website has acknowledged: "There is no time to lose as there is a pressing need to push flat out on development."

The fundamental truth of Formula One is that the car is always more important than the driver. It's why we made cash last week out of laying champion Sebastian Vettel for both qualifying and the race in Australia. And it's time to use that golden rule again where Ferrari are concerned.

There's no doubt Alonso is a brilliant driver, but even he can't hope to produce a consistent season if his car is so far below par. Yet you can still lay him for the top three in the drivers' championship between [3.6] and [6.4], which looks a very sound investment for the season.

Five things you might not know about Luca di Montezemolo
1. Born Bologna in August 1947, he's the youngest son in an aristocratic family. His grandfather and great grandfather were both Italian Army generals, and one of his uncles commanded the Italian Navy

2. He studied law at the University in Rome - while developing a passion for rally driving. He drove for the Lancia rally team. He got his big break with Ferrari when Enzo Ferrari heard him calling a radio phone-in to passionately defend the sport in a debate over safety standards. By 1974 he was team manager

3. He has five children - two boys and three girls - from three different marriages - the youngest being 18 month old son Lupo and the oldest 34-year-old Matteo. Current wife Ludovica Andreoni is a 40-year-old jewellery merchant.

4. He managed and ran the committee responsible for staging the 1990 football World Cup.

5. He personally hands every new Ferrari employee a postcard which says: "The real secret of success is enthusiasm. You can do anything if you have enthusiasm ... With it there is accomplishment. Without it there are only alibis."

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