Left: Maurizio Arrivabene, Right: Sergio Marchionne
Autosprint, a leading Italian motorsport magazine, claims that following a disappointing first four races in 2016, Maurizio Arrivabene is facing the sack.
Having won 1 of the four flyaway races in Malaysia last year, it appears Ferrari have slipped back towards their 2014 form which saw the Mercedes team win the opening 4 races of the season.
Having superseded Luca di Montezemolo, new Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne moved quickly to sack his predecessor’s appointment as Scuderia team boss – Marco Mattiacci. It would have been difficult for Marchionne to replace Mattiacci with a non-Italian and so in Arrivabene he appointed a fellow countryman who had served the team for years in a PR role liaising with sponsor Philip Morris.
Maurizio Arrivabene has been a big hit with the media and the fans alike, though he is merely a figurehead with no engineering experience and no large project management experience either.
However, there has been no indication of any internal disputes at Ferrari between James Allison and Arrivabene – so if Maurizio is facing the sack, it could be because Sergio Marchionne needs to ramp up the pressure within the team and someone has to carry the can.
Sacking Maurizio Arrivabene or putting pressure on drivers (as we’ve seen in the last few weeks) will not see Ferrari suddenly bridge a gap of 1s a lap that Mercedes have in hand. Promoting Allison seems like an odd route to take, great technical staff don’t always make great managers or leaders, to get the best from a team you need people to be in roles that suit their skill sets. Merc have that nailed, Paddy is the Exec for the technical stuff, Toto the executive for front of house and politics.
Sergio Marchionne is a man who perhaps needs to realise that in F1 there are no Leicester City fairy tales, swapping one guy will not make Ferrari world beaters again. For that they need to out develop Mercedes, and whilst the German team throw so much at F1 in terms of resources I think it’s unlikely that the status quo will change.
Precisely. I’d suggest that MB are still developing faster than anyone else in the sport ,even with diminishing returns kicking in. Put simply, Toto is talking A-grade manure.
The Red Queen effect pretty much kills any chance of another team being seriously competitive for a few seasons yet, short of enforced PU parity measures. Marchionne is dreamin’.
Ferrari & Red Bull & McLaren all spent their ways to multiple championships in the past. It sucked then as it does now. At least Macca’s have us Senna vs Prost.
That’s because at mclaren they had two grade A drivers in the best car. And they let them race each other. Both of those things do not apply on mercedes.
Is that the Red Queen with or without her necklace on?
Mental image…. Cannot rid
😂😂…. Switched off tele immediately and went to bed
fascinating to me that a floating boat luxury car Constructor competing against GM and Ford can kick butt over a road-going super car mfr. and self-indulgent F1 so-called icon.. oh, I forgot, the Ferrari garbage is owned and run by a 6+ long decades Fiat/Chrysler/Alfa for crap car industry that needed a financial bailout too… please remind me who the big dog of running this group is???
remember J/O, you are running the company which caused the World to coin “Italian Fire Drill” pitstops and how many World-Class F1 racers were killed of maimed in your POS barely competitive racecars over the decades???
me thinks he is the Euro version blowhard of ‘Murica’s Dump the Trump character…
I get that James has had considerable success in his career, but WHO designed the Lotus twin tusk disaster recently (and grossly over-estimated their ability to pay full wages on time)?? hmmm..
F1 and ALL bigger time racing is HUGELY comparative to the chain restaurant biz for which I am VERY knowledgeable!. it has almost nothing to do with ping pong/golf/boxing/NFL etc. the best in the biz only get it right occassionally…
SM is merely a delusional, over-paid loud-mouthed jackass.
Ferrari/Seb/Kimi/??/James/Arrevabene/SM will be nothing more than a tick bite on the ass n of others for the next 3 to 5 years IMHO .
BTW, I kicked owning or even once driving a Ferrari off my bucket list 50 years ago…
so, take it for what it is worth 🙂
In answer to your question about “WHO” designed the twin tusk car it was Nick Chester.
Nicely put…….and now it makes me wonder if Marchionnes expectations have been too high for his own good! They had Fernando for 5 years and blew 2 titles and a possible 3rd. I guess Vettel got so annoyed with Kvyat because of the pressure he is under to win. That I dont think will happen again this year…..Merchumps are still sandbaggin by half a second at least, and theyre still over 1 second a lap faster than anyone else atm!!! #:)
Oh you have to love Ferrari, I see the old team spirit is alive and well….nothing gets a team motivated like the scythe of looming unemployment. The great man himself played the same card and to a point it worked well😇
https://mobile.twitter.com/EstebanGtz/status/729658040006279168
Interesting!
super mario!!
No doubt Lewis and Nico will have tears in their eyes from laughing. Because of which they don’t see eachother at the first corner and punt eachother off track, so that Seb can steal the win and everyone at Ferrari is happy.
One thing that no-one can deny about Arrivabene is that he’s one miserable looking bastard at all times.
Will we now have to call him, oh god, it’s too delicious to bear, “Maurizio Arrivederci?” Sorry, sorry sorry hahahahaha
Bellissimo…….
Think I’ll be beating that one to death on Twitter