Absolutely nothing (except both have the letter "e").
Just kidding.
Stage Manager and Ferrari's 2022 Formula One campaign were both major flops. iPad enthusiasts—you know why. F1 enthusiasts—you know why.
Here's how both reflect the other and what the future could hold for both Stage Manager and Scuderia Ferrari:
Woah...
After both the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix and the announcement of Stage Manager, everyone had one thing to say: "woah"
Ferrari ended up with a 1-2 (a racing term where both of the team's drivers were at the top), and Apple came out with a feature people had been asking for since the dawn of time.
This was a mini-excitement period of joy for both Ferrari fans and iPad enthusiasts: I remember staring in shock at my phone as I watched WWDC last year.
Oh Wait.
But from there, everything went downhill.
Ferrari fans need no introduction to what happened last year. For those who don't follow F1, let's just say it was a "slow death."
For iPad enthusiasts, the novelty of Stage Manager has also died off. The obscure gestures, strict hardware limitations, and meh implementation put Stage Manager in the "what could have been" category.
Comeback Season?
There were a couple points in 2022 where Ferrari fans had the tiniest bit of hope that Charles Leclerc could pull something out of the hat.
In a way, Stage Manager was almost similar: the partial expansion of Stage Manager to older iPad models made up for some of the issues we had with Stage Manager.
But it wasn't enough: Apple chose not to bring external monitor support to older iPads. And while it may seem justified to some, it's disappointing for most.
At the moment, I rarely use Stage Manager—a structured Split View-style of multitasking is better for my workflow.
WTF
Then came the WTF stuff.
On Ferrari's side, we saw terrible strategy calls from a team that genuinely had a chance of fighting for the title.
From Apple, we saw not-so-great implementation of Stage Manager. After reports of software bugs and the removal of external monitor support, people weren't so sure how the Stage Manager mess could be fixed.
And if I'm being honest, I still have no idea.
New Year, New Start?
But as 2023 rolls around, both Ferrari and Stage Manager have a shot at success.
Ferrari recently picked Fred Vasseur as their new team principal, which could hopefully lead to a shift in strategy and team management.
Apple brought back external monitor support in December, and could potentially release more updates in iPadOS 17 (which will probably come out later this year).
Final Thoughts
“The real problem was reliability and our first goal is to improve it”—Fred Vasseur (and hopefully Tim Cook)
Thanks for reading!
Adi