Montezemolo steps down from his role as President at Ferrari

I think it is an interesting event - especially when you put it in the context of the big picture at Ferrari.


Here is an interesting (for me) article, which describes the current (chaotical) siutuation at Ferrari

[www.bbc.com]

First Domenicalli, then Luca Marmorini and now di Montezemolo. Whilst the Ferrari team is trying to make a change that will help them leap frog their competitors, I really cannot see any logic in their actions - and the situation rather begins to look like the chaos in the late 80s/ early 90s when people were getting fired and managers changed over and over again. In fact, Marting Brundle made a great point that Ferrari were closest to Mercedes at the Chinese grand prix. And basically this was the last race, on which DOmenicalli had some impact. What has happened since the? Well, two things basically. First, ferrari never got as close to mercedes and second, more people got fired for whatever reasons (e.g. marmorini told the press, that he was ordered to make a certain type of smaller , more compact engine - perhaps ferrari thought that, since in 2009 the KERS was a disadvantage and the lighter cars were faster, this time it will be the same. The guys in the factory designed exactly such engine and then got fired for doing this.

In short, I do not want to defend any of the people who left/ got fired in the last few months. But two of those people were part of the golden era at ferrari a decade ago. Even if an organization wants to introduce a restructuring programme to become more effective/ efficient, it should look if the people inside can be given another position, better suited for their skills. Maybe domenicalli could have been given another role in the team, maybe not. But according to the bbc article the way ferrari treated its people pushed away other high quality specialists from joining the team (the example in the article is about how Andy Coldwell from Merc. , who was in advanced negotiations with Domenicalli, realized that he does not want to join a team that treats its staff like that).

And more fundamentally - ferrari always say they were more than a team, they were a family. Well, they certainly do not act as such at the moment, and the vague, broad, blue sky words which mattiaci uses time after time do not give you any indication that he has a SPECIFIC diagnosis of the situation, let alone coherent policies and actions to solve a SPECIFIC challenge. And once you identify the challenge, or the problem, as underperformance - as ferrari did and keep doing, you have a big trouble. Because underperformance is never the problem - it is a side effect of the true problem.

Finally, I still remember how Ferrari started 2013 - fantastically. 2 wins from 4 races and alonso led the championship. Sadly, rule changes hurt their car. But the basic idea is that those people inside the team have constructed race winning cars. And race winning seems to be getting ever more distant of a dream to mattiaci and ferrari right now.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/12/2014 09:47AM by mitadumapaga.

I read the Autosport interview with Marco Mattiacci. His glib and superficial way of answering the questions, seasoned with ridiculous amounts of self glorify hyperbole, strikes me as the hallmark of a sociopath. Don't get me wrong, some sociopaths are very effective business people, but most of them aren't. They make a career out of crushing the people below and immediately above them, while stealing the glory for their achievements, and presenting them as their own to the upper management and general public. I have mentioned elsewhere, that the current restructuring at Ferrari could be interpreted as a hostile take over of a specific faction within the company. That interview pushed me a lot in that direction.

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It's only after we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything.