Ferrari are preparing for one of their most exciting Formula 1 seasons in recent memory as Lewis Hamilton prepares to make his debut for the Prancing Horse.
Team principal Frederic Vasseur will hope that the combination of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc will end the team’s 17-year wait to win a championship.
Hamilton’s F1 record is unparalleled, with only Michael Schumacher winning the same number of Drivers’ Championships as Ferrari’s new signing.
There are high hopes for Leclerc too who arguably had his best season in F1 to date last year, despite finishing third in the standings.
There’s an argument to be made that Leclerc and Hamilton is the team’s strongest pairing in decades, but Schumacher and Fernando Alonso are the modern benchmark for Ferrari drivers.
Rob Smedley apologised to Alonso for the team never delivering him a championship-winning car despite being at the peak of his powers while racing for the Scuderia.
Smedley was speaking on The Red Flags Podcast and explained that during his time working as a race engineer for Ferrari what made Schumacher and Alonso better than any of the other stars he saw race for the team.
Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari data was ‘otherworldly’
Smedley was asked about Schumacher’s telemetry during his time at Ferrari and said: “You map what you should be seeing [in a driver’s data] and where you should be seeing it and what it should look like and what to expect.
“With what Michael used to do with the car, the way he used to drive it, but even the way that Fernando is able to adapt.
“When you’re looking at how close they can get – not always, it was always like a special occasion – to the limit and just over what we were looking at, over the level of adhesion.
READ MORE: Rob Smedley shares ‘key difference’ between working with Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso
“Some drivers, you would be able to see from the telemetry that actually you’ve got more grip available, go faster and that was usually the case as you always give yourself a margin because you’re driving cars at 200mph, if you make a mistake it’s a big mistake.
“Sometimes you would see them driving so on the limit of grip and if they were to just make a tiny mistake, it was wipeout.
“Michael was so good at that, the hand-feet coordination and the feel that he had for the car, he was just otherworldly at times.”
Fernando Alonso searching for final F1 championship victory before retirement
Although Alonso’s record for Ferrari doesn’t come close to what Schumacher achieved, he was still arguably the fastest driver on the grid between 2010 and 2013.
The Spaniard finished runner-up to Sebastian Vettel on three occasions during that period before heading to McLaren for a second underwhelming campaign with the team.
Alonso will turn 44 halfway through the 2025 F1 season but will be realistic when it comes to his chances of adding to his 32 race wins.
READ MORE: Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso’s life outside F1 from net worth to Cars 2
Instead, Aston Martin have high hopes for 2026 when the regulations change and the benefit of signing the likes of Adrian Newey, Enrico Cardile and Honda as their exclusive power unit supplier will be felt by the team.
Alonso could end up retiring at the end of 2026, which would give him just one season to try and add to his two world championships.
His experience will certainly benefit him in any battle at the front of the grid if Aston Martin provide him with a fast enough car.
