After the first two races of the 2020 Formula One season, Scuderia Ferrari is far from a happy oasis, between an SF1000 far from expectations and the incident between Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel, which for the second time in the last four races has knocked out both cars. No official comment from the president and CEO, but Team Principal Mattia Binotto has now ended up under heavy criticism.
But the problem could run deeper than that, according to Dieter Rencken (an authority on global motorsport politics and economics), or more precisely in the choice of key employees and the concept of organizational structure:
“Does Ferrari’s apparent reversion to a policy of (seemingly) appointing only Italians with Ferrari experience to its top F1 job lie at the root of the Scuderia’s downward trajectory? […] Surely Ferrari needs the very best about, not merely the best talent to be found in what is logically a rather shallower pool than available outside of Maranello […] Ferrari owes its shareholders the best possible on-track results, results befitting its status as the ‘grandee’ of F1, particularly as its entire marketing platform centres around F1. After all, Ferrari has (or had) no qualms about employing the finest drivers of their generations regardless of national flag. Thus Juan Manuel Fangio (Argentinian), Mike Hawthorn and John Surtees (British), Niki Lauda (Austrian), Scheckter (South African), Schumacher (German) and Raikkonen (Finnish) joined Italian drivers Giuseppe Farina and Alberto Ascari in the pantheon of Ferrari champions. Why does this not philosophy not apply to team principals or senior staff? Is it pure coincidence that five of seven senior team members listed under ‘team’ on Ferrari’s website are Italian, joined by a Frenchman and a Spaniard? True, ‘foreigners’ have in the past been employed as technical directors (or similar), but their prevalence is far out-weighed by locals. Consider that every F1 engine director bar one has been Italian, with the exception being Simon, a Todt recruitment. Coincidence? Now consider the situation at other teams: the currently dominant (German) Mercedes F1 team is headed by an Austrian supported by British technical and engine directors and previously employed an Italian engineering director; (Austrian) Red Bull has a British team principal and technical director; McLaren Racing’s CEO is American, the technical director British and team principal German. Renault is headed is by a Frenchman, the executive director and technical director are Polish. Swedish owned, Swiss-based Sauber is named after Alfa Romeo, but the team boss is French. Ferrari’s future in F1 will hinge on some brave decisions, the toughest of them all being whether to venture outside its bubble as Montezemolo did almost 30 years ago or whether to continue with its policies. What people remember first about Ferrari in F1 at the turn of the millennium is that they – and, by extension, Italy – reigned supreme, not that the team sporting the green/white/red Tricolore happened to be managed by a Frenchman.
Continuing to plod down this ‘Italy-first’ path does no favours to Ferrari, its legions of fans and followers, and F1 itself. It is an approach which deprives the team itself and the country it represents around the world the success they crave so passionately.”
Dieter Rencken, RaceFans.net
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