Ferrari has appointed Maurizio Arrivabene to be head of Gestione Sportiva and Team Principal. Surprisingly, Mattiacci is being dropped completely.
Arrivabene is a Marlboro man, and has been the paymaster of Maranello for the last 10 years. It is also worth noting that the contract with Philip Morris was up for renegotiation.
One little known fact ( I am told) is that Mattiacci had interviews with both Aston Martin and McLaren over their road car activities…
The move is a clear indication of the way in which Fiat boss Sergio Marchionne works…
joeblogsf1 
No Ross Brawn then 😦
I can’t help but feel he’s wasted when he’s fishing and not running an F1 team… 😦
“Wasted”, enjoying the fruits of his labour? Is that not what we all strive for?
If Eddie Jordan is to be believed he is making a comeback – here’s hoping. Mind you if you combine the VW Audi rumour with Joe’s takeover of Ferrari by same Company maybe it doesn’t work as a rumour …………
VW is not coming to F1 until BE is not there any longer.
Joe, did something happen between VW and BE?
Who knows?
Do you think BE will still be running the show next season Joe?
I don’t know
Why not treat this Audi gossip as good news, then?
Because it is not real
I can’t imaging anyone will be doing anything significant in F1 until BE is gone. His best is well behind him and he’s just holding the sport back now. His comments and actions are now damaging F1. How can the teams be chasing big sponsors when the F1 ringmaster is making comments like social media is irrelevent and chasing younger fans is a waste of time? Just imagine if McLaren were about to sign Sony and Bernie blurted that out?? What an idiot.
Indeed. The man in a dinosaur of the 70’s, WAY past his prime and needs to go as soon as possible before he becomes even more of an embarrassment.
‘If Eddie Jordan is to be believed’ Mmmmm, well quite.
I read it too quickly and thought it meant Eddie had decided to make a comeback.
He’s my sole reason in justifying Sky…
Are you a fan of how Sergio operates?
Also, how long before Montezemelo (?) is being shouted for by the Tifosi?
This just seems such a strange decision considering how much Mattiachi was praised for his role in the Fiat company before joining the F1 team. Now he’s gone completely?
Seriously though, I think this guy has only been picked because the italian papers will report it as a good arrival!
Honestly, you couldn’t make it up!
Nice! It’s going to be a year or two for the Boys In Red. Hopefully Ross stays well out of this one!
Thanks for your insights, Joe over the last few days. Have enjoyed the vicarious involvement.
AA
Well I wasn’t clear on this when I read the initial Ferrari press release, but Mattiacci isn’t just out of Scuderia Ferrari – he’s been fired from Ferrari altogether? That is a surprise indeed.
Joe, you mentioned in your blog a short time after his appointment as Team Principal, that he may not hold the F1 role for long and that he’s potentially being groomed for a higher position within the Ferrari company (like Jean Todt who went from Ferrari team boss to CEO).
In your opinion was he fired as a result of Ferrari’s horrid season (and his failure to turn it around) or because he didn’t showed the loyalty to the company his boss Marchionne expected?
One can only assume that Mattiachi overplayed his hand when ousting
Alonso and that Marchionne , in the first place, wanted Fernando to stay
and that Mattiachi was asked around September to keep Fernando on board
and not to make Fernando leave , to a team who might become competition
in the years ahead.
Maurizio Arrivabene
Marco Arrivaderci
Mattiacci was a road car man that Ferrari seemed to be grooming for greatness. He was always seen as a temporary steward at the team, and logically would have been moved right back into Ferrari’s road car division.
Was Mattiacci too close to di Montezemolo for Marchionne’s liking?
Unless Sergio has realised that Mattiachi is clearly not the man for the job and has brought Arrivabene in to run the team (he has a strong relationship with Bernie), but with strict instructions to let Allison do what he needs to do to make a quick car
Presumably then Mattiacci was always a temp replacement, whether he knew it or not. And Ferrari were waiting for the end of the season or for their ideal candidate to become available.
Have you got much planned for the Winter Joe? Do you think much will happen in the way of smaller teams, distribution of wealth, before 1st testing session?
Also loved your brief cameo at the end of DC’s grid walk.
If I may ask, are we to surmise from this that he was sacked because of clandestine approaches he made to rival car firms?
Joe, do you think this move has been done by choice or Marlboro/Philip Morris have forced this on Ferrari?
The latter
Do you think he has the qualifications to run an F1 team?
Is this for losing Alonso or cleaning house of Montezemolo’s men?
Still no Abu Dhabi update on the website.
Try emptying your cache by re opening the browser. It’s been there for 18 hours
Read that Mattiacci handling of Alonso dismissal caused Ferrari to incur big payment to Alonso and that was no small part in Mattiacci getting pushed out from the team as well as Ferrari in general.
I don’t think that is the reason
Curious. Do you think there was a payment to FA?
No
Thanks for reply.
I’d be curious as to what this said payout was?
Was this one of the most creative ways of putting someone on gardening leave ever?
This all seems a lot like the early 90s… Not a good omen at all. What the hell did Marchionne think Mattiaci could archieve in these few months. The car an d engine were not on par, nothing he could do to change it.
I am starting to have a real bad feeling about Marchionne: he wants instant results, but in F1 there is no such thing (unless he bought the mercedes team…). Look where Mercedes was just a couple of years ago, and where they are now. It needs long term thinking and team building. This is hire and fire.
I have always been a ferrari fan, but I am having big doubts now. I might just switch to Williams, which shows what can be done if the right people are in the right places. It is a team with a positive image, Ferrari at the moment definately is not!
Vettel should really try to lure Horner and Newey to the team if he wants some success in the next few years…
To give you a nudge towards Williams, consider this; they beat Ferrari in the constructors with a budget that is smaller than the handout that Ferrari receive from the FIA, let alone all the money the Red boys get from Malboro, et al
OUCH!!
Although I agree with your general point, this situation is somewhat mitigated by the fact that Ferrari build their own engine, unlike Williams, and this will always require a higher operating budget
Maybe they could have saved some expense and heartache all round if they filled out a cheque with the words “Pay: Mercedes Benz”
Not only that, Williams utilized a driver that Ferrari thought was sub-par and got rid of.
Harsh… but fair. Just goes to show that success is nothing to do with the team or its name, but the people who work there at a given time. The evidence is all over F1.
Sorry to be harsh, but your comments are all…let’s say silly. If you think the decision to drop MM was based on on track performance you clearly haven’t been paying attention. You ask Joe if Marchionne would/could pull the plug on Ferrari in F1. In what fantasy land would that make sense? Could you shot yourself in the face? I guess so, but do I need to ask the question.
Shoot*
And you have paying attention? Oh goody! Thank god there are still people like you in this world or we would be in dire straits…
Joa, do you think Marchionne could pull the plug on Ferrari in F1 if he doesn’t get the successes he desires?
If Ferrari were not in F1, then before long they’d be just another Lamborghini… nobody, and I do mean nobody, wants to be the guy who pulled Ferrari out of F1…
Marchionne, Mattiacci and Maurizio… My English brain is struggling with these names.
It seems harsh that Mattiacci is being dropped completely. He took over a team that was a complete mess with all of the senior management being pushed out. It’s hard to come in and have a big impact within such a short space of time but I suppose it is what is expected of football managers and they compete in a similar environment ie very competitive and lots of money involved. He seemed like a strange signing as he had little f1 experience. I’d heard a rumour that he was bought in with the idea of taking a more senior roll within Ferrari and to do that you have to run the f1 team first but if he is being dropped completely then that is probably not the case. He might be a good asset to the McLaren road car division!
Maurizio seems like another strange signing as well? It appears he may have ‘bought’ the role which isn’t what Ferrari needs right now. I can see Vettel flapping around in the mid field for many years to come at this rate. Oh well I suppose it means it’ll be harder for Ferrari to claim there special payments if they are not competitive!
After his unceremonious dumping of Alonso , who is now McLaren bound I can’t see that working out well
A big difference with football, though. A manager may be able to inspire a players to give, say, 10%more effort and the team may improve. But in F1, you can’t inspire an engine to give 10% more power, or aerodynamics to suddenly give 10% more downforce. That takes development time, something which is likely interupted by all these managerial changes at Ferrari.
Could it be that it’s already obvious that next years car is still a dog…
First we had “pay drivers”, now we have “pay team principals”.
I am going to guess that Mattiacci was one of Montezemolo’s guys, and Marchionne wanted to clean house of anybody loyal to the prior regime.
No he was a Marchionne choice
That makes his departure especially odd.
No one could have expected Mattiaci to have done much better than he has done. He was a road car man, thrown into the blazing fire. Replacing him with a more experienced hand was expected, but his complete ouster from the company?
Has there been an inkling as to why Ferrari no longer require his services? A falling out with Marchionne?
I think he did a decent job, but it was a poisoned chalice
Wasn’t he just an axe man brought in to chop down dead wood? Now the dirty deeds have been done he is on to pastures new.
No I don’t believe so. I found him to be a very intelligent man with a real world view of racing and what needed to be changed. Maybe he suggested that Ferrari has to give up its bonus payments for the good of the sport?!
Well, there’s the rub. Maybe he didn’t know he was the axe man but his paymasters did. Typically Machiavellian.
I am immediately reminded of Danny Kaye.
“The chalice with the malice”
Ferrari is starting to look like they need a very serious PR makeover!
Hi Joe, do you feel a bit sorry for Mattiaci in all this? From what I’ve read he was highly successful head of the road car division in the United States. Parachuted into Ferrari’s F1 team with almost no time to prepare and unsurprisingly made a few blunders. You’d expect him to be reintegrated into the Fiat/Ferrari empire somewhere wouldn’t you? Seems an awfully rough deal. Interested to hear your thoughts. S
Yes, I do. Very smart guy.
Joe do you not think that Mattiacci knew he was an interim and therefore took the opportunity to find alternative employment because he did not want to go back to his old post. Having found a new place and indicated he wanted to leave, so Ferrari made sure they had an alternate announced first or they would have looked very weak and no one would want to move there.
Without Brawn and without results my guess is that recruiting any real talent is going to be very hard going forward. Vettle and Kimi are going to be the Berger and Alessi of the current era. I would further suggest Kimi will be gone after one more season leaving Vettle wondering what the hell happened and what to do next.
> Vettel and Kimi are going to be the Berger and Alesi of the current era.
Hah, yes! Poor so-and-sos.
Perhaps from the perspective of quality drivers in a sub-par car I agree. However, the ONLY difference is that you have 5 WCs between Vettel and Kimi, just a SLIGHT difference.
It is ironic coincidence that these two drivers follow a very talented driver (Alonso) just as those two did (Prost).
I wouldn’t bank on that Adam. I think Vettel has been thinking of moving to Ferrari for more than a year. James Alison is a known quantity, Vettel has got some people he knows from Red Bull & Renault, to go to Ferrari, so I read somewhere ( maybe here! ), and I think people totally underestimate Vettel’s mental abilities and strength of character, along with his work ethic.
I reckon he will totally immerse himself in every aspect of the team. The first year or two may well be rocky, but come 2016, if Ferrari can get equal with Merc on engines, then Seb will be a force again and a title contender. In between he’ll have a lot of fun winning the odd race here and there, and building the team around him. Kimi won’t give him any problems, and will probably ride out the next 2 years there before going and being replaced with maybe someone from the Ferrari young driver programme.
Ferrari is going to be really fascinating to watch now, and Vettel will answer all the people who have trashed him, over the last 5 years….don’t forget he is still a young driver even with 4 titles, Alonso is probably on his last Contract before retiring as no one keeps an F1 driver past 36-37 these days, I don’t know why, they just don’t and Hamilton will be 32 -33 ish when Vettel gets the Ferrari in title order, so he may well be winding down, and Seb will not have the big names to deal with that are around now, and were during his RBR stint.
That’s a very rose tinted view with many if, buts and maybes. Yes Hamilton and Alonso may have gone by then but Bottas, Ricciardo and the much lauded Verstappen will still be around. If Ferrari couldn’t do it with Alonso why would having Vettel be the magic bullet?
Well Martin, it maybe that although Alonso had influence, the team may not have been taking as much notice of him as it should have done. This has happened at Ferrari before in the past. Now Vettel moving in, with some support from his old team members, and new management at the team, may mean that Vettel has a better chance of getting the team focused, than Alonso has managed in the last couple of years.
When Pirelli came back, I read somewhere, that only one driver went to their factory, during the off season, to ask questions on how they were making their tyres, the compounds etc etc, who was it….Hamilton? Alonso? Raikkonen? Rosberg?…….no, Vettel….and only Vettel….then people wonder how he could do the things he did with RBR. It’s not all the car, sometimes the driver really makes a difference. I reckon that Ferrari are now open to any input on how to get back to winning, and Vettel will get them there.
If having one of the greatest drivers wasn’t enough to focus them, then surely they have serious problems ?
If he was so successful at RBR, why was he whooped so convincingly this year by Danny Ric ?
Thing is Daniel, and even you may have experienced this, if you spend too long working for someone or some company, the people further up the chain start to take less notice of your views, and you get tired of waiting for people to make decisions that you want made.
This is probably what happened at Ferrari. They thought just plugging Alonso in the car would make up for other shortcomings, he probably pushed people for the first 2-3 years, found the response was slow/negative, and last year was the straw that broke his back. This year was maybe the first time he would be able to exercise a break clause, so he thought he’d look elsewhere properly. Last year his pook at RBR would have been a heads up for the team, or so he thought, but they were too busy navel gazing….as to Vettel, can you imagine the stress and work load of winning 4 titles in a row? Only one other driver in the history of F1 has done that, Schuey, but Michael rarely had internal problems to deal with, while Seb had a hard nosed and quick Aussie to contend with as well as Hamilton, Button & Alonso….just think, yes Seb had dominant cars, but Hamilton only had Rosberg as a rival this year, Lewis won 10 races before last weekend, and he still made his title win hard work! I reckon Seb had reached the bottom of the tank, he didn’t like how the new cars handle and brake and took a lot of time to understand them, also he had a very quick, young and enthusiastic team mate, and his thoughts even last year, were on the possibility of driving for Ferrari. Also, he had more unreliability than Ricciardo, so the bottom line is not to see the last race or the last 19 races as the real indicator of a driver performance, that can only be done after they finish their careers, and any other comparision can only be against the stats of the rivals while they are working. On that basis, and over the last 5 years, Seb beats Dan into a cocked hat….maybe Dan will win 5,6,7 titles, who knows? What can be said is that one good season does not make him a World Champ or the best driver at RBR…..it doesn’t make him better than LH, JB, NR, FA….but it does show his potential, which is high at present.
If I read the second para correctly, then he saw this coming and was already working on a contigency…..
No. That was before he started
Joe, I was going to ask when he spoke to the other manufacturers.
So McLaren and Aston Martin was already in discussion with him before he started with the F1 team?
Do you think either will seek his services again for the US market?
Ah, so perhaps this was Fiat’s revenge FOR him talking to other car companies… put him in charge of the struggling F1 team, then nobody will mind when he’s sacked. Shame though, as after a wobbly start, he seemed pretty sound.
It was before he went to Gestione Sportiva
As you know, I’m a bit dense about this sort of thing… so, any translation into plain English will be greatly appreciated…
Was Ferrari aware of the interviewing before they sent him to F1?
Is the axe for Ferrrari having belatedly learned he was looking around?
Or what?
I don’t know.
I don’t believe so.
Well, then why was he fired?
Was a few months on site enough for him to figure out what the problems were, and maybe his boss didn’t want to hear opinions about what solutions were in order?
But even that wouldn’t seem to warrant a firing… rather an internal move to another role…
So, how do you make sense of this? Did he call his boss an insufferable moron? Or what?
Well with that bit of information I totally understand why all of this has happened.
Mattiacci was leaving anyway and took the opportunity even knowing it to be a poisoned challis. He got to see and get hands on in a racing team structure, something that both McLaren & Aston Martin would see as a valuable addition to his CV. If he performed the miraculous then he had a new position for years to come, if not, then no one really expected he could turn it around in a such a short period of time.
Ferrari needed to move on Montezemelo and they had the perfect candidate for what could be seen as a win / win for both parties.
When they have finally sacked all the scapegoats, who will be left to blame? Ferrari corporate structure makes as much sense as a Bernie Ecclestone interview reply these days. None of this has affected the lucrative road car business yet. But it will.
Hey Joe:
Reporting from Detroit on this topic. Know 1st hand from those who have dealt face-to-face with him that Sergio is a tough, tough, tough guy. Very straight-forward, very blunt. You will know exactly where you stand , exactly what the Mission is, and exactly when expected. Obviously not a situation for everybody.
I think things at the Scuderia will improve quickly and measurably or the problems will become Volkswagen’s (or someone else of their ilk) to fix..!!!
Ferrari is well on its way to mediocrity.
For 2015 they have signed up 2 drivers who have been soundly beaten by their teammates in 2014.
They don’t have the right people in place to build the car. The “power unit” is inferior to Mercedes. The aero is inferior to MB/RBR/Williams. And as of lately to McLaren as well. The worst part is, that none of the big aero or engine designers want to work in Maranello. They are all going to UK-based teams like McLaren and Williams at the moment. Peter Prodromou, after working w. Newey for RBR all these years was repeatedly lured to go to Ferrari. He chose Ron Dennis instead. That speaks volumes.
There was even a rumor in the paddock today about Ross Brawn going back to Ferrari, but he himself denied it. Without a catalyst, and if McLaren+Honda works next year, Ferrari’s best hopes are to be 5th for the next few years, in front of Toro Rosso and Force India.
And Fiat is trying to sell the company now?? There must be more to this than we’re seeing on the surface…
The old man must be turning in his grave ! Those dreadful garagistes, Williams, Red Bull and Mercedes (BAR > Honda > Brawn) et al, beating the prancing horse ! How dare they..
You jump to a lot of conclusions. To paraphrase Twain, reports of Ferrari’s death are greatly exaggerated…
Have you stopped to think that Ferrari may have decided early on to keep their resources for the 2015 car rather than spend it on an under performing 2014 car?
How do we know whether Prodromou is the next big thing? Perhaps he can only work well within the RB framework or under Newey? Perhaps Ron will micromanage him and stifle innovation?
You mention that “none of the big aero or engine designers want to work in Italy” yet James Allison (arguably the second best aero guy after Newey) is already there.
You also suggest that Honda/McLaren will be ahead of Ferrari, yet you’re comparing a team with no development mileage (Honda) to another with 12 months head start (Ferrari). It has been shown by Renault this season that dyno testing is not a substitute for track mileage.
I would suggest that the only “knowns” for 2015 are:
– Mercedes are likely to still have the strongest package
– the rules allow for Renault and Ferrari to make changes to their engine packages which should close the gap
– RB are likely to be stronger from the start of the season due to the Renault package being better than it was at the start of 2014
Damon Hill summed it up over the weekend, that with the centralised English F1 talent pool, you have to move a fair few [engineers, etc.] across en masse to make large positive changes and no one wants to go and deal with the politics. Mercedes understood this when there were thoughts of going to Stuttgart, an idea which was soundly dropped. (Although I understand that senior management are based there, engine and team are based in UK)
Sadly, I think this year was the best chance Ferrari had and will have for a long time due to the fact that they could have done a Mercedes and built a beautiful engine well in advance to package a nice tight car around.
In fact, the more I think about it, the more I think that Honda realised the same thing, and I suspect their engine is also going to be fabulous!
X
The English talent/English team is a theory du jour that often gets floated about. Just because most of the teams are based in England doesn’t mean you need only Englishmen to win.
Were there proportionally any less Englishmen in F1 in the early 2000’s when Ferrari were dominant? Don’t think so. Teams will do whatever makes sense logistically and at the moment England is it. If Germany were to start encouraging small high skill engineering businesses tomorrow, setting up in Stuttgart wouldn’t be so outlandish.
But how many englishmen were in technical charge.. Brawn, Byrne (Ok SA, but not Italian is my point..) ? Who have I missed ?
Vivek.
In my opinion the problem for teams outside the UK is staffing the mid level positions. At the top the money you can save in 3 or 4 years will help set you up for life. At the bottom the young ones will do what ever they need to do to get there first F1 job.
The problem is the mid level. These people are often at a time of life when they are starting a family. The money on offer is not so big as to be able to solve all problems and the needs of family life are growing. In the UK if your job goes away and you are good you should be able to find a new one without the need to drag your family across the word. This is a big life advantage.
It applies both to British staff and other nationalities the chose to live in the UK. If you want to work in F1 and have a stable home life you ether live in the UK or bet on the stability of just one of the other teams.
This would be the Ferrari of the early 2000’s which had a French team principal, and English Technical director, a South African chief designer at one point had a Dutch/Australian head of Aero (or was it a Greek one?).
Anyway, it’s not about English engineers, it’s about the fact that the majority of teams are in a relatively small region close(ish) to Silverstone. This means that one can move from team to team, climbing the ladder and not have a huge upheaval of moving children’s schools or even necessarily moving house.
At one point a few years ago a recruiter said to me that the two teams struggling to get staff were because they were geographically separate from the rest. One was in Cologne (Toyota) and the other in Norfolk.
Most F1 teams are full of a wide range of nationalities.
Yes but Ferrari were dominant then with a whole host of English folk lured to Italy. I don’t think its a nationalist bias – just that the historic experience base is heavily tilted towards UK based engineers – and Ferrari has its last dominance by getting a lot of them out there – perhaps it’s more that Italians feel the pressure of home demand more – to the UK guys heading out there, the vengeance of the tifosi is less keenly felt?
Not English talent – talent based in England. Historically England’s been probably the biggest centre of gravity for racing car manufacture design since the late 1950s, and there’s a historical inertia about it. There are/were other centres of gravity in Italy, France and Germany (probably in that order) and centres of a different kind in the States. Worth noting that the English centre of gravity was kicked off by, amongst others, Ron Tauranac and Jack Brabham, so as I say, not necessarily English talent.
With the apparent demise of single seater racecar design and manufacture as a sensible business proposition (ex Lotus, Cooper, Brabham, Lola, Ralt, March, Reynard, Van Diemen et al) maybe this will all change; that dense network of suppliers, racing teams, designers and drivers must be looking a little thin these days….
Jack and Ron came to the UK because it was the centre of racing.
> Were there proportionally any less Englishmen in F1
> in the early 2000’s when Ferrari were dominant? Don’t think so.
I don’t either. But there were several fewer Englishmen in England, as quite a few talented ones followed Schumacher to Ferrari to revive a team that hadn’t won anything in a dog’s century. Among them were Ross Brawn, Rory Byrne (well, almost an Englishman by then), James Allison, and a dozen or so others. Englishmen played a huge role in how Ferrari’s dominance happened. It’s when they got rid of the Brits and replaced them with locals that they stopped winning.
p.s. I’m a USian, so I don’t have a nationalistic interest in this… but we might as well face it, F1 has traditionally been the “English Racing plus Ferrari” Championship… It might have been called the world championship, but for much of its time it mainly it went on the Grand Tour of Europe and visited a few far flung former British colonies, just like their aristocrats used to do back when they were honest-to-God landed gentry… “the sun never sets on Formula 1”, etc.
I wanted to add in a bit about all the ‘World Series’ sport extravaganzas that seem to emanate from where you USians live but I forgot what I was going to say……..Bother!
Among real sports, that’s just for baseball… and, while it is kinda silly, it really is the best quality baseball there is… and by a large margin too…
“The move is a clear indication of the way in which Fiat boss Sergio Marchionne works…”
Your statement confuses me even more after reading that this was probably forced on Ferrari.
I presume that money is Marchionne’s priority, then, or is it ruthlessness? Dare I say rudderless?
WOw, so what do 1066, 1483, 1936 and 2014 have in common? Three kings.
This all smacks of 1991.
what’s that saying: “Its better to travel hopefully than to arrive well”?
Interesting consensus of opinion, uniformly pessimistic. I would counter that by a simple and hopeful message: ..
Hang on. That was while Mattiacci was spearheading the great revival. But now….
Aaaaaaaaagh [with echo]
Joe, just a thought that’s been rolling around in my brain; In business, it is quite common for a company reorganizing itself to bring in a “hatchet man”. Someone in a position of authority, usually has ultimate say. He/she comes in, does the business (letting people go) then leaves, giving nobody who’s left at said company a target to express resentment towards. A heartless cynical approach, I know, but…do you believe this may have been Mattiacci’s brief when he was brought in? Handle FA, sort out others, then leave?
So, putting it bluntly, was this a case of “put our man in or you lose our money”?
Your conclusion…
The following was in the press release:
“at this historic moment in time for the Scuderia and for Formula 1, we need a person with a thorough understanding not just of Ferrari but also of the governance mechanisms and requirements of the sport,”
“as a member of the F1 Commission, is also keenly aware of the challenges we are facing. He has been a constant source of innovative ideas focused on revitalisation of Formula 1”
“His managerial experience on a highly complex and closely regulated market is also of great importance”
So to recap Ferrari, you have replaced the current OK team boss, with someone with no experience running an F1 team, but who knows about the dodgy governance of the sport and who could throw a spanner in the works of the small teams clear arguements that a small number of the big teams and Formula One Management are running a cartel. Thanks for making that clear you bunch of…….
Equal payments for the competitors please.
Also I can point out I tried to post this on Sky Sports website and it wasn’t approved. Similar thing happened another day I criticised Mr Ecclestone and the comments option oddly disappeared the day of the cartel letter from Force India.
Rethinking ,my subscription to SKY (which I had pre F1) as well as Sky Sports
Sky is a propaganda site.
First a car salesman now a fag salesman, yup the future looks bright for Ferrari.
It is said that most revolutionaries are lucky with their opponents (like Margaret Thatcher with the Labour party of her era, or UKIP with most of British politics today). With the exception of Williams, which has had to come from a long way back, all of Merc’s would-be competitors seem to do their best to trip over themselves. Not that Mercedes needs them to at this point, they are dominant as it is.
Next year looks pretty much lost for any team running a Renault engine and the entire next decade looks lost for Ferrari. The only dark horse is Honda, although the signs from McLaren aren’t positive at this point, it is conceivable that Honda pulls off something special. Or not. Much as I have come to like Lewis in the past few years (especially the so-called petulance), I hope that Nico can give him a run for his money again, although I have to agree with James Allen that historically, the deck is stacked against him – with Lewis on a high from his title and Nico possibly having punched above his weight this season, much like (with all due respect) Massa in 2008.
And Bernie is paying how much to these clowns?
More than Williams’ entire budget……
But they’ve been there forever and are so important.. People love to follow a ‘legend’.
If only they weren’t so pompous and self important, i’d have more respect for them.
Would like to know what the true reason is for such an abrupt falling out.
Had to of been recent and massive. 😦
The new appointee at least has the connections to pursue an alternate plan to immediate success. Amend the regulations to Ferrari’s benefit.
Surely F1 knows they need Ferrari (sarcasm).
One thing is painfully obvious though. Ferrari are determined to mirror F1 in so much as they both appear to be a bit of a cluster f*** as Joe eloquently pointed out in a recent post.
Is it possible that Arrivebene’s arrive is Bernie’s engineering? Vettel surely knew in advance about upcoming change at the top of Scuderia…
I guess it was his friend Bernie who told him about development there.
No I don’t think he did
Has Nico punched above his weight? Historically, drivers used to say that qualifying was a much more reliable indicator of driver speed than races, because the unpredictable elements and reliability factors in races cloud the picture too much. Based on that – to me, reasonable – point Nico seems to be very much on a par with Lewis. Crucially, if Lewis’s home life takes a turn for the unstable again (not that I would wish that on him at all) then I think his race performance (where Lewis’s edge has been this year) might be much more significantly affected than similar circumstances would do to Nico.
Prost beat Lauda after losing to him the previous year. He then repeated the trick against Senna in 1989. In addition to The Professeur’s comebacks against his team mates, it was Massa, not Kimi, who took the fight to Lewis on the occasion of Hamilton’s first Championship in 2008. I’m not sure where JA is getting his history from, but there are quite a few occasions where a the title match between two team mates has swung the other direction in the subsequent year.
Sorry, this was in response to Tom V, up the page, but I typed it in the wrong box without realising my mistake… oops!
I’m enjoying watching this story play out. Joe claims Mattiaci is a smart guy and so is Alonso. Alonso signs with McLaren and now we hear Mattiaci is also talking to McLaren. Does make one wonder.
Do Philip Morris do anything apart from tobacco related products? I am puzzled as many must be, as to the reason for their continued sponsorship of Ferrari.
“Ok, so I am going to give you millions of Euros every year, but we both know you are not allowed to mention my product.” “Even in the shops people are not allowed to see it” “That’s a real bargain for me right????”
Maybe Ferrari is tax deductible in whichever country Philip Morris pays it’s taxes.
Next year maybe alcohol advertising will be banned in the EU.
So what is left of the cash laden vices (that can be publicly promoted) Gambling? No they seem to be a bit under the weather at the moment.
No it will have to be what appeals to rich 70 year olds, Jewelry perhaps, bullion houses, ocean going yachts, gin palaces. (Stair lifts has already been done by someone in print)
Anyway next year is gong to be interesting, how many more knives?
Political appointment , hired for negotiating skills re engine rules , if no change then no chance of wining .
Could gang up with non Mercedes engine teams for rule changes now or threatened major change 2016 .
Perhaps the paymasters just wanted more control over how money was spent and Ferrari just wanted the money. Arrivabene is no more of a racing man than Mattiacci. What Ferrari requires more than anything is as little interference as possible from dabbling managers. Jean Todt managed to ring fence the team and keep the dabblers out.
Especially dabblers with nothing but panic buttons on their desk, and a testicular style of personnel management. 🙂
Very odd, Mattiacci is the top dog for Ferrari road cars in North America (their largest market). I wonder if Marchionne put him in as the race team principal to get rid of a potential competitor to his own role as head of Fiat Chrysler. I wait to hear Mattiacci’s version of events but somehow he strikes me as a person to keep his gun powder dry and await another day.
It is another example of the strange world of F1 where politics is stealing the limelight from the racing. I note there are more questions and debates at the Team Principles News Conference versus the Drivers Press Conference.
I’ve known Mattiacci for a number of years as he was head of Ferrari N A. I would suggest that he had the softest job in the World. With demand exceeding supply by something like 5 to 1 all he had to do was decide who gets the cars and who doesn’t.
I must say that whilst I don’t know the guy, this is exactly the impression I’ve had since Mattiacci arrived at Ferrari F1. Joe seems to have a sound opinion of him though. It would be interesting to know who got his job in N.A., it’s a key market for Ferrari after all and whilst all the big wheels are saying how important winning in F1 is, car sales are what brings the revenue. If winning in F1 was so important, you have to question how they have prioritised that over the last years… To me, there seem to be too many agendas and too many goals on the table at Ferrari. This new guy may be the man in terms of diplomatic whatever but will he lead this poor collection of individuals to winning ways? (Poor in the sense that as usual, it’s the soldiers that suffer whilst the generals get fat) At the end of the day why do they make it so complicated? Car, engine, driver. JFDi.
Very interesting. what kind of staff did he have? did he have any involvement in the customer GT racing program?
I know it’s a bit late to ask these questions…
Great point you made during the team principal’s press conference Joe. Pity you didn’t get a serious response.
One of the best team principles press sessions of the modern era. Joe had them squirming, everyone should read it.
Toto’s ad hoc comment now assumes a different light.
“TW: He hopes to wake up from this nightmare!”
If Joe allows the link it is here: http://www.fia.com/2014-abu-dhabi-grand-prix-friday-press-conference. It’s worth reading all the way to the end.
Normally one is half dead with boredom after the first answer in these things but his one is different. The press have their pencils sharp.
If Ferrari don’t coax Brawn back to do a… Ferrari… a Brawn… a Mercedes… with the money the tobacco guy is gonna fund him then Ferrari is lost… Brawn + Vettel will mean a fifth WC for Vettel… Ferrari being run by marketers and emotiion will mean the loss of Kimi in 2015 and Sed in 2016.
There seems to be a consensus here that Mattiacci has been fired completely and is “out of work”, I find this aspect of the story the most “unbeliveable”. I have searched the net and only found inferences to the above but no clear statement. Can anyone point to where they have read or seeen it.?
Thanks.
He has been fired.
Ok so he WAS fired but this is the most interesting thing, why was he fired and not just moved sideways?
15 years service over and out?
Thank you. That seems most strange given all the “hoopla” that went with his appointment as TP. Perhaps that’s how they do things. One thing I did find is that prior to Ferrari he spent 10 years with Jaguar (apparently).
After hearing what Lewis had to say about Ross and Nicky and their laptop presentations on how Mercedes were going to develop to tempt him to join them from McLaren I wonder what Ferrari had to show Vettel to similarly tempt him, or was it just that they didn’t have Recardo in the team and a shed load of money…
I reckon it was a Scuderia Ferrari powerpoint slide with a picture of Danny Ric and his ten mile wide smile, with a big black cross through his head and lots of dollar signs and a promise to send Fernando a horses head with a card attached that reads ‘From all’a da boys ‘backa da factory’, love from Seb x PS Kimi says hi..’ 😀
This is all starting to look very early 1990s. I assume Vettel has gone there because with 4 titles at his age he can afford to lose a few years if necessary – then decide on a change or early retirement…
Hello Joe
Such an interesting post that has produced a large and varied response.
Marchionne is a force to be reckoned with. Turning round the Fiat group, then similar with Chrysler and finally bringing the 2 businesses together to create a large motor company …FCA…better able to compete on the world stage. And I believe he serves on the Philip Morris board or has done previously.
So it seems Marchionne, having ousted LM at 67 with a usefully large payoff, has now terminated his own appointee Mattiaci after just 8 months. The total departure might indicate some major confrontation between these men or maybe MM has just negotiated a useful early termination payment with the usual silence clause much preferring to seek pastures new.
If the appointment of MA ex-Philip Morris is down to quid pro quo ref on-going sponsorship from the tobacco company this seems less than one might expect from someone like Marchionne.
Previously we had LM at the head of the road car and F1 team businesses with the younger Stefano Dominicali as team principal. Are we to expect MA, at the head etc to be appointing a new team principal/racing director in the manner of Dennis/Boullier at McLaren ? Per Mattiaci, Signor Arrivabene has no experience of running an F1 team.
On a lighter note, the new incumbent can be translated as “manages well” ….we ‘may’ have the opportunity to find out.
Recall being in Saudi Arabia in the mid 80s…..at the time, the definition of ‘optimist’ was an employee of Aramco (oil sector) who bought 2 weeks groceries.
Noted with interest the comment from Andrew Frankl…..the AF from Autocar I think ?
Marco was there 8 months, how long before Arrivabene becomes Arrivederci Maurizio!
Big issue is that Ferrari need a Todt to bring it all together, and what Todt did was conduct the pieces, but left the musicians to do the playing. He just put them all together and let the group sort themselves, using the best people in the best places. If the new boss could tempt Brawn, then he’d be getting some where fast.