It seems that F1’s new era of gender diversity is having an effect. After finally having Fernando Alonso announce his retirement earlier this month, the former Formula One champion was replaced at Ferrari by Danish driver Romain Grosjean, a top driver from a lesser circuit.
On Wednesday at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Grosjean’s morning qualifying session came and went with Ferrari topping the practice timesheets and leaving Grosjean well behind. So well, in fact, that the team recorded its worst pre-qualifying practice performance at home since 1984. No, really.
Back then, the year was 1985 and American drivers Miki Yokomine and John Marshall were on hand in Italy to help the team get practice runs in. Both drivers completed 25 laps in the session and while the wheelballs were extremely different beasts, the pre-qualifying session went swimmingly for Ferrari.
“John Marshall and Miki Yokomine came out on the Ferrari in A8s at the end of their weekend of practice,” 1996 driver Jody Scheckter told The Guardian in a tweet recalling that glorious day. “John went out in his regular wet grey Ford chassis and Miki had her Lotus, while Edoardo Mortara was doing F1 for Toyota in a big BMC Coupe. Ferrari PR guy Parno Brunig took a photo of the trio after the session, and now it’s part of my driver’s history.”
According to the publication, Fiorano has been dubbed “the black spot on F1 history” because of the terrible performances of the Italian carmaker’s home-based team. Still, before having a race track called Ferrari Studio, the Automobile Club della Moda had to wait 100 years before a qualifying session at home.
