2019 Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team

[marmer]

The timing of the change of technical director seems somewhat odd. One would have expected it to come at the end of the season, before Arrivabene's plans for the new season had any chance of hardening. This is a hectic period with the unveiling of the 2019 car only a month away, yet suddenly the captain of the ship is changing. If Arrivabene had given any of the drivers in the new lineup (or any other team members) his personal assurances, that is also out the window.

I hope this is not a sign of confusion and wish Ferrari the best for 2019.

They haven't been known for good planing since Todd.
Although I suspect anyone close to arriva new he was going and they just didn't anouce it earlier. Could even be something like the Christmas break and Monday was the first day back for many staff.

[GoranF1]

Is this last year of Vettel contract?
Binnoto loves Alonso.

[astracrazy]

Or did Marchionne turn it around, only for things to suddenly crumble when he was no longer around to lead?

I very much doubt he would have had much hands on running with the f1 team. Especially enough for the downturn in form once he got ill.

I think Arrivabene did a good job in turning the ship around and to be honest they could of had the championship last year.

[DVB]

Good stuff! Arrivabene did his share to move the team up the ladder and has shown to be a strong character.

But, when the team lost grip on the number 1 spot at the WCC, tension raised up between Arrivabene and Binotto, dropping the team's focus and lost performance.



To come back on the evolution to the 2017 car. Once Allison left Ferrari, the team put its eggs in the basket of Binotto and they succeed in doing something out of the box on a very short time period. AFAIK, Allison played no part in the design of the 2017 car (mainly sidepods change offcourse).

Lets hope they can bring it to a new level and make it exciting races until the last race!

[f1316]

Or did Marchionne turn it around, only for things to suddenly crumble when he was no longer around to lead?

I very much doubt he would have had much hands on running with the f1 team. Especially enough for the downturn in form once he got ill.

I think Arrivabene did a good job in turning the ship around and to be honest they could of had the championship last year.

Here’s a BBC quote about Arrivabene to support my point:

“He was in charge of Ferrari while the team enjoyed a revival in competitiveness in the last two seasons.

But he was widely seen within F1 as a Ferrari figurehead only, with the real power instead resting with former president Sergio Marchionne, who masterminded a reshuffle of the technical department in 2016 but died from complications during surgery for cancer last July.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/46784200

Not only is it the general perception that Marchionne was the man in charge, I think it was quite evident when any and all quotes coming out of Ferrari about the future of the sport were from Sergio’s mouth.

And because he did indeed have such a hands-on role, they lacked leadership as soon as he unfortunately left the picture.

[djones]

I Think Ferrari are going to be in for a tough season. The driver setup is going to cause not only points being 'stolen' from the lead driver, but much conflict by about mid way. Then this management change will also destabilise the entire company in the short term.

[GPR-A]

And because he did indeed have such a hands-on role, they lacked leadership as soon as he unfortunately left the picture.

Luca de Montezemolo was a Ferrari President and after he was sacked, Sergio Marchionne, who was the CEO of FIAT group, took over Ferrari role also. It is difficult to believe that, a man sitting at the highest level of the power chain can be hands on and influence the culture at the lower rungs of the workforce.

Marchionne took over Scuderia Ferrari at the end of 2014 and by that time, the SF15-T had finsihed in it's design with a rejuvenated PU and the car was competitive. But probably not competitive enough to beat the Mercedes. That could have been a catalyst for the design team to then focus on new regulations for 2017 and put all eggs in that basket. The result, a weaker 2016, but a phenomenal rise in 2017. I am not sure where Marchionne really contributed here, especially sitting at the top where there were too many business groups (FIAT, Chrysler, Maserati, Ferrari Road cars) were involved.

I am of the belief that, neither the team principal, nor the technical directors really contribute to creative design elements for a car. It's done by architects and design engineers at various departments (like vehicle dynamics, aero, tyres and what not), at lower to mid level hierarchy. Guys like TD and TPs are presented with the designs from the managerial/architect folks in the design departments, which the TD/TP probably gives a green signal. That is the reason why you see little shift in performance when TD/TP guys leave/fired. After the debacle of 2014, guys like Nicholas Tombaziz and Luca Mormorini (From engine division) got fired, but you see how the 2015 turned out to be. Their departure had little influence on the progress made.

Ferrari lost out to another supremely talented and well organized team. If not for that, there wouldn't be these discussions about Ferrari's problems and it was all praises for Arrivabene and Binnotto.

[marmer]

And because he did indeed have such a hands-on role, they lacked leadership as soon as he unfortunately left the picture.

Luca de Montezemolo was a Ferrari President and after he was sacked, Sergio Marchionne, who was the CEO of FIAT group, took over Ferrari role also. It is difficult to believe that, a man sitting at the highest level of the power chain can be hands on and influence the culture at the lower rungs of the workforce.

Marchionne took over Scuderia Ferrari at the end of 2014 and by that time, the SF15-T had finsihed in it's design with a rejuvenated PU and the car was competitive. But probably not competitive enough to beat the Mercedes. That could have been a catalyst for the design team to then focus on new regulations for 2017 and put all eggs in that basket. The result, a weaker 2016, but a phenomenal rise in 2017. I am not sure where Marchionne really contributed here, especially sitting at the top where there were too many business groups (FIAT, Chrysler, Maserati, Ferrari Road cars) were involved.

I am of the belief that, neither the team principal, nor the technical directors really contribute to creative design elements for a car. It's done by architects and design engineers at various departments (like vehicle dynamics, aero, tyres and what not), at lower to mid level hierarchy. Guys like TD and TPs are presented with the designs from the managerial/architect folks in the design departments, which the TD/TP probably gives a green signal. That is the reason why you see little shift in performance when TD/TP guys leave/fired. After the debacle of 2014, guys like Nicholas Tombaziz and Luca Mormorini (From engine division) got fired, but you see how the 2015 turned out to be. Their departure had little influence on the progress made.

Ferrari lost out to another supremely talented and well organized team. If not for that, there wouldn't be these discussions about Ferrari's problems and it was all praises for Arrivabene and Binnotto.

As a race team they have been known under arrivabene to make some bad strategy calls and a good few more pit stop mistakes than mercedes so you can argue that actually his side of it was the weaker side. The car was designed well for the past two seasons and shown progress while the race team didn't seem to improve.

[XRayF1]

Correct, but race strategy mistakes were hardly Arrivabene mistakes, but mistakes by a Head of Race Strategy.
For which, I accept, Arrivabene has to take reponsibility for.

Where I am with you is the diverging focus from VET and VET's Championship.
In contrast, Merc made it abundantly clear early on that BOT was HAM's wingman, where there was not such call made within SF.
(please note that I am only describing the differences in the approach, not my preference or opinion)

This was a bad strategic decision in my world, which can be pinned to Arrivabene - simply because if you are a serious contender, you need to focus rather than to split the likelihood of a win.

I am withholding the car issue - simply because Ferrari's Design team made a poor decision re the underfloor introduced around Singapore - and could not find the error over a couple of GPs. This does not speak well for the design team.

[Morteza]

https://twitter.com/autosport/status/10 ... 6859528193

[Ringleheim]

Is this last year of Vettel contract?
Binnoto loves Alonso.

Ha! My dream would be for Ferrari to sign Alonso and replace Vettel with him, effective immediately.

Don't mind Maurizio being shown the door, but I don't like the idea of Binnoto running the team and being technical director at the same time. That's 2 monstrous jobs piled on top of one another.

We'll see how well it works.

[Sevach]

And because he did indeed have such a hands-on role, they lacked leadership as soon as he unfortunately left the picture.

Luca de Montezemolo was a Ferrari President and after he was sacked, Sergio Marchionne, who was the CEO of FIAT group, took over Ferrari role also. It is difficult to believe that, a man sitting at the highest level of the power chain can be hands on and influence the culture at the lower rungs of the workforce.

Marchionne took over Scuderia Ferrari at the end of 2014 and by that time, the SF15-T had finsihed in it's design with a rejuvenated PU and the car was competitive. But probably not competitive enough to beat the Mercedes. That could have been a catalyst for the design team to then focus on new regulations for 2017 and put all eggs in that basket. The result, a weaker 2016, but a phenomenal rise in 2017. I am not sure where Marchionne really contributed here, especially sitting at the top where there were too many business groups (FIAT, Chrysler, Maserati, Ferrari Road cars) were involved.

I am of the belief that, neither the team principal, nor the technical directors really contribute to creative design elements for a car. It's done by architects and design engineers at various departments (like vehicle dynamics, aero, tyres and what not), at lower to mid level hierarchy. Guys like TD and TPs are presented with the designs from the managerial/architect folks in the design departments, which the TD/TP probably gives a green signal. That is the reason why you see little shift in performance when TD/TP guys leave/fired. After the debacle of 2014, guys like Nicholas Tombaziz and Luca Mormorini (From engine division) got fired, but you see how the 2015 turned out to be. Their departure had little influence on the progress made.

Ferrari lost out to another supremely talented and well organized team. If not for that, there wouldn't be these discussions about Ferrari's problems and it was all praises for Arrivabene and Binnotto.

You are mostly right, but when there are serious issues between your technical director and the team principal it falls on the president/CEO to settle things, that's where Marchionne might've been missed.

Ps:Vettel is contracted to the end 2020, the Alonso faithful may sit and wait.

[munudeges]

........and so it continues.......

[munudeges]

Yes, except for significant changes to...

- front wing
- bargeboard
- floor
- diffuser
- rear wing
- tyre size

...to name the biggest ones. And of course they didn't have any effects on aerodynamics.

Significant? Alas, no. They weren't anything like the changes that were promised. The biggest change to deal with was the tyre size, the rest was business as usual and window dressing. Like many others you were fooled into thinking things were going to change, probably to try and nullify the embarrassing dominance Mercedes had.

All the cars have very clearly been evolutions from 2015 when the teams found what worked with these regulations. There are no revolutions to be found there no matter how hard you try I'm sorry to say.

Sadly, this also doesn't alter the fact that Ferrari and the oh so innovative post-Allison team seemingly suddenly stopped understanding their car in any way shape or form by the middle of last season after years of stable regulations and development.

[Vasconia]

I do hope Binotto can make a good job as the leader of the team. I am tired of having "revolutions" in Ferrari each 2-4 years. The aero work has been excellent so they only thing is to have some stability.