2019 Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team

[Big Tea]

I think some of you might oppose what I'm about to say heavily and I really don't know if my rationale is reasonable but just hear this out.

I think Ferrari, and all the teams, should be employing native english speakers as their head of strategy and their race engineers. This might come off stupid and irrelevant at first but I've been thinking about it for a while and I cannot decide if it's really a thing or not.

Almost all F1 teams now are multinational companies that employs people from all around the world and almost all the time afaik english is, the universal medium of communication between team personnel, be it Mercedes or Ferrari, which is like a hypernationalistic company serving for their land and gives utmost importance to Italian. So in a medium like that being a native english speaker with good communication skills I think is a huge, very huge advantage because it seems to me being the head of strategy in a team does not simply require assessing the situation well, being aware of your team and rivals, optimizing the strategies, taking reasonable risks at the right moments but I think it also asks for good management of personnel around you and that takes good communication to begin with.

Now with that being said, I don't mean in any way that a non native english speaker guy cannot be succesful at his job as the head of strategy but I mean that it would be harder for him to execute his job than a native english speaker.

I was reading a while back that a couple hundred years ago many European engineers (or what ever they were then called) learned English as it is a good language to discuss technicalities in. Lately however I find what many natives speak is only borderline English though.

[Jolle]

I think some of you might oppose what I'm about to say heavily and I really don't know if my rationale is reasonable but just hear this out.

I think Ferrari, and all the teams, should be employing native english speakers as their head of strategy and their race engineers. This might come off stupid and irrelevant at first but I've been thinking about it for a while and I cannot decide if it's really a thing or not.

Almost all F1 teams now are multinational companies that employs people from all around the world and almost all the time afaik english is, the universal medium of communication between team personnel, be it Mercedes or Ferrari, which is like a hypernationalistic company serving for their land and gives utmost importance to Italian. So in a medium like that being a native english speaker with good communication skills I think is a huge, very huge advantage because it seems to me being the head of strategy in a team does not simply require assessing the situation well, being aware of your team and rivals, optimizing the strategies, taking reasonable risks at the right moments but I think it also asks for good management of personnel around you and that takes good communication to begin with.

Now with that being said, I don't mean in any way that a non native english speaker guy cannot be succesful at his job as the head of strategy but I mean that it would be harder for him to execute his job than a native english speaker.

I was reading a while back that a couple hundred years ago many European engineers (or what ever they were then called) learned English as it is a good language to discuss technicalities in. Lately however I find what many natives speak is only borderline English though.

I think it’s essential to be able to communicate with your team members and as a non native English speaker myself but mastered about 4 languages trough my life so far, I don’t see the non-native speaking as a disadvantage. Most of the engineers are of such a high level that an extra language isn’t a big deal. I actually find it quite poor that most British people only speak English with maybe a little French.

[munudeges]

But they aren't italian are they?

Sent from my POCO F1 using Tapatalk

I don't think that's a criteria for the team. Don't know if you're trying to be funny or actually meaning something with that post?

It's pretty clear what he's talking about, and it's the elephant in the room with that team.

Flavio Briatore has long said Ferrari need to get out of Italy for this very reason. Mercedes did not move their team to Stuttgart, did they?

[santos]

But they aren't italian are they?

Sent from my POCO F1 using Tapatalk

I don't think that's a criteria for the team. Don't know if you're trying to be funny or actually meaning something with that post?

It's pretty clear what he's talking about, and it's the elephant in the room with that team.

Flavio Briatore has long said Ferrari need to get out of Italy for this very reason. Mercedes did not move their team to Stuttgart, did they?

Yeah, no team had success staying out of UK..
Oh.. actually there was. And it's Ferrari. Not once, or twice, not even three... who knew?

[dans79]

Yeah, no team had success staying out of UK..
Oh.. actually there was. And it's Ferrari. Not once, or twice, not even three... who knew?

It's been a while though! Just because something worked in the past, doesn't mean it will work today, or in the future.

[santos]

Yeah, no team had success staying out of UK..
Oh.. actually there was. And it's Ferrari. Not once, or twice, not even three... who knew?

It's been a while though! Just because something worked in the past, doesn't mean it will work today, or in the future.

Also doesn't mean that it won't... so, the fact that is on one place or another, is irrelevant. They had 21 years to win again after 1979. Mclaren is in the UK and they don't win since 2008. And it's not even winning races. It's 2019, people don't find a job just around their home town or even country.

[munudeges]

Yeah, no team had success staying out of UK..
Oh.. actually there was. And it's Ferrari. Not once, or twice, not even three... who knew?

I didn't mention the UK, and that I'm afraid is a meaningless word salad.

Ferrari have this pathological need to fill the team with Italian, or at least Latin, people. It is deeply ingrained within the politics of the team and neither Lauda nor Todt, Brawn and Schumacher could get rid of it. The latter just insulated themselves. Mercedes never said 'we'll take it from here' when they took over.

Unless Ferrari changes that then their future looks incredibly shaky from a Fiat point-of-view. If this nonsense continues with the budget they have I'd pull Ferrari out of Formula 1 and put a fraction of the money into Alfa Romeo, or Sauber as it's called. I'm betting their relative results would be far better with a far more sensible and focused team structure.

[selvam_e2002]

There is a news in gptoday that Vettell going to quit f1 end of this year. Not sure whether we can trust it or not.

[selvam_e2002]

vettel not quit, retiring....from f1

[izzy]

There is a news in gptoday that Vettell going to quit f1 end of this year. Not sure whether we can trust it or not.

well it's someone reporting someone reporting a rumour that something might happen, so i'd say not to trust it. i mean Seb might, obviously, and he might not, obviously

[Big Tea]

There is a news in gptoday that Vettell going to quit f1 end of this year. Not sure whether we can trust it or not.

well it's someone reporting someone reporting a rumour that something might happen, so i'd say not to trust it. i mean Seb might, obviously, and he might not, obviously

I can see him wanting to go back to RBR???

[izzy]

Ferrari have this pathological need to fill the team with Italian, or at least Latin, people. It is deeply ingrained within the politics of the team and neither Lauda nor Todt, Brawn and Schumacher could get rid of it. The latter just insulated themselves. Mercedes never said 'we'll take it from here' when they took over.

Ferrari had James Allison, Jock Clear, Pat Fry, they tried to get Adrian Newey and Andy Cowell, and they've hardly ever had an Italian driver, even one, so i don't think we can say they're too madly nationalistic can we? they are in Italy, after all so most of them are bound to be Italian

[Gettingonabit]

................................ I actually find it quite poor that most British people only speak English with maybe a little French.

You are right of course but when a very large portion of the developed world can and do converse in English there isn't a great deal of incentive.
For instance, a good number of years ago the company I worked for started exporting to a very large German munitions manufacturer, I felt it appropriate to try and learn German to at least show some respect. Unfortunately, with a 60+ hours per week job and a family needing some attention, my learning curve remained steep for some time. In the end, every time I visited said manufacturer they asked if we could all speak in English so that things could progress sufficiently - hence I gave up!
So it is not always English laziness or unwillingness.

[dans79]

There is a news in gptoday that Vettell going to quit f1 end of this year. Not sure whether we can trust it or not.

well it's someone reporting someone reporting a rumour that something might happen, so i'd say not to trust it. i mean Seb might, obviously, and he might not, obviously

I can see him wanting to go back to RBR???

His Ferrari contract runs through 2020! To go back to RBR he would have to buy out his contract, or sit out a year. Both scenarios are very unlikely!

[izzy]

There is a news in gptoday that Vettell going to quit f1 end of this year. Not sure whether we can trust it or not.

well it's someone reporting someone reporting a rumour that something might happen, so i'd say not to trust it. i mean Seb might, obviously, and he might not, obviously

I can see him wanting to go back to RBR???

well yes but he left there after the blown diffuser disappeared and Dan beat him, in the car that didn't suit him any more. and MAX... i think he'll stay at Ferrari, personally, more likely than not, but probably even he doesn't know at this point