2008 Team-by-Team Review

Ferrari     1st, 172 points

Comfortable world constructors' champions, eight grand prix victories and missing out on the drivers' championship by a single point with Felipe Massa, this was a terrific season for Maranello, the first under the full leadership of Stefano Domenicali following the official retirement of Jean Todt.

Much against expectations, Massa proved the stronger performer for the team over the balance of the year, as Kimi Raikkonen too often struggled for someone of his reputation and salary. A car with an understeer balance not to his taste and not always being fully match fit were two of the contributory causes to Kimi's struggle. But another was undoubtedly the way Massa impressively stepped up his own game, by turns controlled and inspired by his race engineer Rob Smedley. The relationship between a driver and his engineer is a much under-estimated performance factor and in Massa's case even more critical than normal. His temperament is such that he needs guidance to keep his energies aligned through a race weekend and his underlying humility allowed him to accept Smedley's lead in this. As a result, his potential was unlocked far more regularly, even compared to his already improved 2007 performance.