- 12 Οκτ 2016, 20:38
#312492
Ferrari is no longer a team but a "group of scared people" afraid of being "fired in disgrace", according to former chief engineer Luca Baldisserri.
Ferrari's season has gone from bad to worse in 2016, having gone from expecting to challenge Mercedes for the championship to dropping to third behind Red Bull in the constructors' championship. The team has not won a race in 2016 and has made numerous strategy blunders through the season, most recently at the Japanese Grand Prix, while it also lost technical chief James Allison on the eve of next season's radical aerodynamic revamp.
"Unfortunately neither [president Sergio] Marchionne nor [team boss Maurizio] Arrivabene have experience in racing, a culture that the Scuderia of today has lost," Baldisserri told Corriere dello Sport in an interview. "They are no longer a team, but a group of scared people. There is a climate of fear. The boys don't take risks for fear of being fired in disgrace."
Team boss Maurizio Arrivabene caused a stir in Japan when he said Sebastian Vettel would have to "earn" a contract renewal like any other member of the team. Baldisserri thinks the team should do everything it can to retain the services of the German beyond his current contract, which expires in 2017.
"Raikkonen is doing better than in 2015, Vettel a lot worse ... It's important for Ferrari to recover him and to hold on to him, at least in the short term."
Since Allison's departure, Ferrari has reverted towards a McLaren-style technical operation headed by several figures instead of one over-arching boss. Mattia Binotto has taken over as chief technical officer, something Baldisserri thinks is the wrong position for the former engine chief.
"Mattia knows how to motivate people, he has great experience but he is not a technical director. He knows he cannot design a car and does not have deep knowledge of the chassis, aerodynamics or mechanical side. He would be a good team principal instead."
http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/177 ... aldisserri