Rob Smedley made his name in Formula 1 as Felipe Massa’s race engineer, and worked for the Formula One Group after the Brazilian’s retirement. Smedley spent no less than ten years at Ferrari in Formula 1, and is therefore looking forward to Lewis Hamilton’s transfer to the Italian team. The 50-year-old Briton believes that his compatriot can take Ferrari to the next level again.
In his twenties, Smedley entered the premier class of motor racing in 1999 when he was hired by Eddie Jordan. It is therefore not entirely coincidental that Smedley appeared in the Formula For Success podcast, with hosts Jordan and David Coulthard. Jordan saw the talented engineer switch to Ferrari at the end of 2003, where Smedley entered into a partnership with Massa two years later.
Passion of the fans plays a leading role
Smedley knows that the Italian Tifosi can be quite fanatical. ‘When you are at Ferrari, it feels like you are in the national team. When you win, the fans treat you great, and you never have to pay in restaurants. As you can imagine, that was my favorite part of the whole experience,” the former engineer laughs. ‘The reality is that they are also very clear if you don’t win.’
It is therefore crucial for the drivers to create a good relationship with the fans. ‘If you win them over, like Michael Schumacher did, you are a god to them. That will give Lewis motivation. I think Lewis can take the team to the next level,” Smedley predicts. ‘In the end you only need a few percent extra.’
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Smedley looks at the dominant periods of the top teams in the last two decades. ‘If you look at teams like Red Bull Racing, Mercedes or Ferrari, when they were struggling, all the right ingredients were there, but you just need that few percent extra, and Lewis can deliver that. He can ensure that everyone goes the extra mile and transform Ferrari into a winning machine,” the Briton suspects. ‘He also wants to win his eighth world title. It is quite unlikely that he will be an eight-time world champion if he goes there, but he will get a good chance.’
Hamilton should not take an entire team with him
According to rumors, Hamilton has clauses in the contract that prevent him from taking certain team members from Mercedes to Ferrari, but the 39-year-old should not want that at all, according to Smedley. ‘You have to be careful when taking people to Ferrari. In the 1990s the team had to be built from the ground up, and then Schumacher brought Rory Byrne and Ross Brawn along with him,” is how Smedley explains the difference. “Maybe he will take certain people with him, but you have to be careful not to follow a driver, but to follow a team,” says the man who followed Felipe Massa from Ferrari to Williams. “Time and budgets will tell.”
Smedley calls for respect
The former engineer also refuted Jordan’s criticism that Formula 1 is no longer as demanding and spectacular as it was twenty years ago. “It’s true that the cars are a bit easier to drive these days, but you still have to see the drivers as warriors and gladiators,” Smedley makes clear. ‘Look at what Max Verstappen can do with a car! Yes, the cars are different. The cars sound different, and are different in how they’re driven, but it’s still a great sport with great elements.”
