Ferrari: The question of whether fear (of being fired) is one of the components that leads the technicians in Maranello to work poorly has arisen in recent days. But is this really the case? As we approach the end of the never-too-hated (by myself and I imagine millions of fans) F1 summer break, we must also address Marc Surer, a former Swiss driver (in F1 in the ’80s) and TV presenter, interviewed by the Germans at formel1.de, who takes us inside Maranello’s workshops like a modern-day Virgil.
However, we are not entirely convinced of the validity of his arguments. His statements: “I know from people who were at Ferrari that everyone works with fear in Maranello, no one has anything to object because they are afraid of losing their job. Even enthusiastic and euphoric engineers are slowed down by this fear.” And further: “This mainly concerns the Italian staff, who are obviously honored to work for Ferrari and do not want to jeopardize their position.”
The conclusion: “Vasseur has nerves of steel and perhaps can steer the Ferrari ship in the right direction. But when he needs to strengthen the team, he has a problem: no one really wants to go to Italy. There are many opportunities in England, so why should an engineer with a family move to Italy? In Schumacher’s time, it was different because an entire group moved. But at the moment, I don’t see any driver who can come to Ferrari and bring half the team with them.”
I’d like to set aside, as it’s a topic we have extensively discussed, the matter of families and the allure of the Bel Paese and the Scuderia in Maranello, as well as the one, now dissected in all possible facets, of the Schumacher era. I’m interested in the aspect of “fear” and I would try to completely reverse the concept.
If the people who make up a renowned and glorious team like Ferrari have been producing more or less three “half” cars since 2014, in the sense that they have created three excellent cars and then failed to develop them, and often produced terrible cars, it seems normal and physiological that they should be held accountable for their work. And it is obviously plausible that this generates anxiety and “fear” of losing their jobs.
Any company, large or small and in any sector, in which it hasn’t been able to turn the situation around for many years, is inevitably subject to this kind of pressure, often resulting in changes at the helm of the management team and so on… Someone might bring up the same old refrain: “Stability is important, but when Mercedes and Red Bull don’t win, they start revamping the team, right?” Not really…
Ferrari: Missing Human Technical Capital
In reality, what has often changed at Ferrari is the Team Principal. The technical reality, that is, the departments dealing with chassis, aerodynamics, and engines have undergone fewer jolts and changes. Let’s then examine specific cases. Red Bull didn’t fire people, of course. But its men came from four years of triumphs (the Vettel era), and after two years of the hybrid turbo era, they started winning regularly again until they clinched the title in 2021.
Mercedes hasn’t won for two years. A bit too short a period to expect cuts and purges, given that the same team won for 8 years in a row. And if we go into the details, they actually brought back James Allison full-time and indirectly said goodbye to Elliot (chief designer of the last two unlucky cars). I strongly continue to believe, and the facts are proving me right, that stability is indeed a value if you have confidence in the people leading the “operation.” And confidence only comes if you get results.
With the results we have had in Ferrari up to now (since the hybrid turbo era began), it’s no longer about wrong methodologies, which might still be a problem, or about missing tools (all updated by mid-2021), but, above all, about the quality of what I call “human capital.” The minds. And if human capital isn’t excellent, excellent results cannot be produced.
In this specific case, excellent cars. And the pressure will inevitably increase (even more so in a team named Ferrari). And with pressure comes the fear of being fired, in a vicious circle of negativity. It’s not coincidental that Vasseur has identified the arrival of new technicians as the main path. They bring new ideas, new methodologies, new knowledge (for Ferrari), and new “vital” energy.
Source: Mariano Froldi for FUnoanalisitecnica
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