It seems that all the rumors about Todt leaving Ferrari came very close to the truth. Todt has admitted that he was going to retire if Michael Schumacher, Ross Brawn and Paolo Martinelli had not moved on. With the team splitting up, Todt felt that he needed to continue for a year at least, just to keep things moving in the right direction.

I am no great fan of Ferrari but I have to admit that the team inspires great loyalty amongst its members. You don’t hear drivers complaining about the cars and no team members gripe about working for the company. That might have a lot to do with the way Todt has run the team and he demonstrates his own loyalty by his willingness to continue for the benefit of the company, but it also stems from how il Commendatore used to run the show.

Back in those days, if anyone criticized the cars or the team, they would find themselves without a job very quickly. Even former favorites like John Surteees had the boot for mentioning in public that the cars were rubbish. The style may have changed in that there is no-one of the stature of Enzo Ferrari to dictate as he did, but the effect is the same: Ferrari team members are Ferrari fans.

Which brings me back to my doubts about Kimi Rakkonen’s success in the red cars. He is just not the type to take easily to such a close-knit team. And there is tacit admission of Ferrari’s own fears on that score; apparently he will be asked to keep his partying out of the public gaze.

Which is all very well but does not take into account the fact that Kimi is big news these days. The press will find out somehow about his misdeeds and the rumors will abound. And Ron Dennis has already pointed out that talking to Kimi about such things achieves nothing.

The 2007 season looks like being one of the most interesting for a decade at least. On the track the number of pretenders to the throne has multiplied now that Michael Schumacher has gone. And part of the fun is going to be off-track, with everyone following Kimi’s latest escapade and its effect on Ferrari. I can hardly wait.

So Ferrari gets Michael Schumacher in an advisory role and, not to be outdone, McLaren is considering taking on Mika Hakkinen in a similar capacity. That would be quite appropriate since they were rivals on the track and Michael considers Mika the toughest opponent he ever faced.

I wonder for how long this new trend for ex-drivers as advisors will continue, however. Michael always looked the obvious candidate for such a job at Ferrari, thanks to his team-building abilities and motivating skills. But Mika seemed a very different sort, a pure racer without Michael’s cold calculation and insistence that everything be done his way. To me, he looks less suited to the position suggested at McLaren and would probably be better in some sort of public relations role. Everyone loves Mika, after all.

The idea of jobs for veterans has its appeal, even so. Imagine Gerhard Berger employing Jacques Villeneuve as Toro Rosso’s unofficial mouthpiece – Jacques would be happy being able to agitate everyone with outrageous statements and Gerhard would have a great laugh, being the practical joker that he is. Juan Pablo Montoya could be taken on by Super Aguri as a balance for their eternal Japanese optimism – and he could carry on biting off the heads of newsmen.

We could even extend the concept and replace Max Mosley with Alessandro Zanardi, thereby changing the face of the FIA from grim dictator to open and friendly. And he would be a constant reminder to everyone of the dangers of swapping to American oval racing. Damon Hill could be made lifetime president of the Grand Prix Drivers Association and continue his quest to be taken seriously.

Johnny Herbert would be the obvious choice for organizer of the FIA awards ceremony at the end of the year – that would be a real knees-up, instead of the pompous round of self-congratulatory speeches of old. And Heinz Harald Frentzen could be employed as his sidekick, never saying anything but smiling, smiling, smiling.

But most of all, I’d like to cheat a little and have Bernie Ecclestone replaced by a non-driver: Murray Walker. I can see it now…

“Of course you can have a Grand Prix… No, wait a minute, where did you say you were from? Brunei? Well, yes, I think we can manage that… Ummm, where is Brunei anyway?”

“My bet for champion next year? Oh that has to be Kimi Alonso, without a doubt. Or maybe Jenson Hamilton – after all, you just can’t rule out those Renaults, you know…”

Well, a little confusion can go a long way in any sport.

Now that Michael Schumacher has retired, the discussions on whether he was the greatest driver ever have started. Some would doubt that he deserves to be amongst the truly great, others point at his record as incontestable proof of his superiority. There being little of note happening in the F1 world today, I thought it would be a good opportunity to take another look at the man who set the standard for the modern champion. Before we assert anything about Michael, we really need to remember Ayrton.

Let’s start with a short video that illustrates something any champion needs to be called “great” – character. Here is Senna’s reaction to Erik Comas’ nasty accident in a practice session. And then there’s dealing with adversity – as in Ayrton’s explanation of the facts of life to a young Michael Schumacher who has just taken him out of the race.

Everyone knows the story of the wet race at Donington in 1993 where Ayrton demonstrated how to drive in the wet – but do we remember how he struggled that year in a McLaren vastly inferior to the Benettons and Williams? Here is how a great champion does his utmost to hold faster cars back in such circumstances.

It is even true that greatness rubs off on others at times – if you could pass Ayrton, you made yourself an immediate reputation. Consider the case of Jean Alesi, whose passing manouver over Ayrton in Phoenix gave him a reputation for speed that was not to fade until his days with Ferrari. Everyone quickly forgot that Alesi was being lapped and really shouldn’t have been messing with the leaders at all.

Most of all, however, we want our champions to be human. Here is a tribute video to Ayrton in which he is caught laughing (yes, actually laughing!) on several occasions. The flag-waving is what got that form of celebration banned in the end, of course!

That was Ayrton Senna – Brazil’s finest but also F1′s, a fierce competitor and yet a man of character and compassion. In his day he was the fastest man on the track, even in cars that were less than the best. His record may not be as impressive as Schumacher’s but the statistics do not tell all. Enough said.

Engineering guru, Mike Gascoyne, moved into his new job as Chief Technology Officer at Spyker today. Gascoyne has worked for Tyrrell, Jordan, Renault and Toyota in the past and is regarded as one of the most talented engineers in F1. Autosport magazine has an interesting interview with him in which he makes it clear that goals for the team in the immediate future are realistic. The car for 2007 has already been designed and it will take perhaps six months for Gascoyne’s influence to be reflected in its performance.

The flurry of news reports of engineer’s movements from one team to another is indicative of how important the design of the car has become these days. Ross Brawn’s sabbatical is seen as nearly as significant for Ferrari as Michael Schumacher’s retirement and Adrian Newey’s employment by Red Bull Racing is taken as a pointer towards an improvement in that team’s performances in the future. The engineers have become stars while our backs were turned.

There can be no doubt that much of this is the result of Schumacher’s work at Ferrari. He was probably the first driver ever to have the stature to insist on specific personnel being added to the team and this has brought about a clearer understanding in other teams that success begins in the design office. It remains to be seen whether assembling a group of stars will result in the best car being designed – luck still has its part to play in these things and theory does not always work in practice.

Red Bull seem determined to have the best team of technical staff at any rate. With the news that they have succeeded in poaching Peter Prodromou, credited with Adrian Newey as being responsible for the excellent MP4-20 of 2005, from McLaren, their personnel list looks very impressive. In addition to Newey and Prodromou, Autosport magazine mentions other important members of the engineering staff:

Red Bull also has ex-Renault Mark Smith as technical director, ex-Renault Rob Marshall as chief designer and ex-Jaguar Racing Ben Agathangelou as senior aerodynamicist.

Red Bull sporting director Christian Horner said: “We now have some real technical strength in depth in our team, with a group of engineers that is one of the strongest in F1.”

Which looks like a winning team. But let us not forget that they have to be a team to win – if they can work together, complementing each other’s strengths, they should propel Red Bull to the front. But sometimes stars do not make good team members and it will take a strong personality (a role fulfilled by Schumacher at Ferrari) to pull them all together.

It will be interesting to watch Red Bull develop next season and see whether such a strong group of engineers can provide the drivers with a winning car. For David Coulthard’s sake, I hope they can.