Arturo Merzario feels Jean Todt’s Ferrari return would be great, ‘but he needs new people’. Arturo Merzario on Ferrari’s difficult years.

Scuderia Ferrari is looking to the future amid strong expectations for the 2022 Formula 1 season and the still recent disappointments of the last three years. Many former members of the Italian side have expressed their opinion on the current situation experienced in Maranello, based above all on the perceptions transmitted from the outside in the last two seasons which have nevertheless marked a positive trend – despite the long absence of victories – in the last period.

Several of them appeared optimistic, from Gerhard Berger to Cesare Fiorio, but many were quite harsh in their judgment calling for a drastic change of direction, despite the new technical rules representing a great opportunity.

“As an enthusiast, I am disappointed – commented drastically Arturo Merzario, who drove for Ferrari in the two-year period 1972-73 always remaining a great supporter, in a recent interview for Italian daily newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport – “The story of the new car no longer stands. There have been so many years since Ferrari has won. It is not acceptable to be satisfied with finishing fourth and fifth with big gaps as compared to the top. Unfortunately, these are moments of crisis and I ran into them too: one year Ickx, comparable in class to Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, did not qualify at Silverstone. Well, Enzo Ferrari didn’t take it at all well… ”.

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“We need a man with a firm hand, a person like Montezemolo, he was the real heir of  Enzo Ferrari, taking up his tradition and improving it – added the former driver – I heard about Jean Todt: his return would be geat but he needs new people, mainly English technicians are needed as happened in the days of Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne. Binotto is right to keep his feet firmly on the ground, the gap with Mercedes and Red Bull is exaggerated. Next year they have to think about winning races but for the World Championship I think it is really difficult.” – he concluded.