Ferrari went through another structural change
Scuderia Ferrari has implemented yet another serious reshuffle in its structure. The fabled Italian squad revamped its aero department over the course of the summer break in a bid to clean up internal connections and enhance the cooperation between individuals.
Ferrari’s technical department experienced a major setback in the summer as technical director James Allison decided to end his second spell in Maranello. The Briton worked for the Scuderia as aero chief in its heyday in the earls 2000s before joining the Renault Team. He came back in September 2013 as the technical director.
Following the tragic death of his wife in the spring, Allison decided to part ways with Ferrari to be able to move back to his native England and take care of his three children.
Ferrari appointed Mattia Binotto as the replacement of Allison on July 27. However, the Italian, who has been working for the Scuderia for more than twenty year, has not taken up the role of the technical director, but the position of the technical officer.
Binotto was responsible for the engine department before and not for the entire car development. As the role of the technical director requires more of a holistic approach, Ferrari tries to revamp its structure.
The new structure is reminiscent of the one applied by McLaren or some smaller teams. It is rather a horizontal structure and not a vertical. That means that the technical organisation is not that dependent on individual figures, but it puts emphasise on the collaboration of different departments and individuals.
“We are working on a new horizontal structure and the coordinator is Mattia Binotto,” said Ferrari’s team principal Maurizio Arrivabene about his team’s new organisation.
The recent reshuffle affected the aerodynamical department of the Scuderia. Former aero chief Dirk de Beer, who was rumoured to leave the team after the departure of his long-time colleague James Allison, did not part ways, but has taken up a new role inside the aero department.
Ferrari’s GT specialist Enrico Cardile moved to the F1 team and was tasked with overseeing the aero department. Former McLaren aero chief David Sanchez, who is part of the Ferrari family for four years and joined the team with Pat Fry, became the new chief of aerodynamics.
Ferrari’s structural changes are also underlined with the fact that the team has not tried to sign leading technical figures from rivals, but it is building on its own young engineers. Mattia Binotto sounded hopeful that Ferrari has the right talent inside its own walls and does not need to poach from outside.
“Ferrari is a great team, (with) huge resources, a number of very highly talented people and I’m sure we’ve got all the resources to do well,” said Binotto.
“At Ferrari we have many young engineers and we can see that these young engineers are very skilled, quite surprising,” concluded the Italian.
