Fortunes wax and wane in Formula 1, and it has been forever thus. In the early 1990s, the teams that the late Enzo Ferrari had so uncharitably labelled as “garagistes” were ruling the roost, while the squad bearing his own name had suffered a short and sharp decline at the turn of the decade.
After contending for titles in 1990 with a John Barnard-designed car and Alain Prost behind the wheel, both of those constituent elements had departed the team over 1991. Barnard left for Benetton, while Prost was released following his increasingly antagonistic relationship with Ferrari’s management, unhappy with the 643 chassis introduced during the season.
Ferrari’s 1992 offering, the double-floor F92A penned by Jean-Claude Migeot, was a disaster. The Frenchman had been signed after his work developing the successful Tyrrell 019 and, although his team could do little about the engine giving up power through blow-by, straightline performance was hampered further by the aerodynamics. The engineers had failed to tune in floor stall at certain speeds, so the car was running around with excess drag on the
