The Ferrari environment is very complicated. Much more than it may seem from the outside. A sentence that has been often read and heard but one which is always worth emphasizing. In the Ferrari Racing Division things are not done just for the sake of it. They don’t show up to an appeal knowing they’re going to lose and make a bad impression. The telemetric data in possession added to the statements and the old cases used to “exonerate” Carlos Sainz were poor in content. They knew it well too.
So why did they show up anyway? Why, in theory, make the so-called bad impression and maybe, as many have pointed out, be beaten in terms of political view through press releases from the International Federation which in fact highlighted that Ferrari’ argument was lacking in terms of substance and coherent content? The question arises spontaneously, of course.
To get an answer, it is not necessary to reconstruct the facts in their entirety. We all know them extensively by now. However, we can take a quick look, for the record, at the explanations that the governing body has issued to reject the appeal. We do this through the official press release pasted below.
As mentioned, the reasons have already been analyzed by most news media outlets and there won’t be a useless additional focus on this topic. However, as pointed out by Formula One Technical Analysis, what is interesting is to instead focus on why the Ferrari top management felt it was necessary for such a meeting to take place. A very specific goal that has been largely achieved.
Ferrari: Fred Vasseur “tests” the FIA
Fred Vasseur was appointed as Ferrari team principal in January. The French manager has put the entire sports management under the magnifying glass with specific orders from the senior management, particularly chief executive officer Benedetto Vigna. The careful study of the environment together with the working methods has generated some measures that are gradually trying to change a sporting process that in fact does not work.
The task is far from easy for a series of reasons related to the recent past. Building a winning team from the ground up. That’s what it’s about. A historic team, in fact, must necessarily have adequate resources. Resources you can count on in any context. Fixers. Always.
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There are currently several pre-established areas of intervention and, as you can easily imagine, they don’t concern just the car or the tools to build it. Bringing home a title, or maybe both in the same season, implies a totality of perfection or almost that embraces all fields connected to the sporting area.
In the top category of motorsport there is a fundamental aspect. It is often referred to as “political power” and is nothing more than the ability to benefit or cancel a disadvantage through legal knowledge in certain situations. Hence the use of “staff” capable of specific events.
Therefore, as reported by Alessandro Arcari, according to the information gathered by the editorial staff of Formula One Technical Analysis, the French manager, supported by the Ferrari management, wanted to verify how the international federation acts towards Ferrari and what is, in the smallest detail, the modus operandi used by the Italian team in similar circumstances.
It is not for us to judge whether it was worth it, especially if that scenario has provided elements that will help the team in the future, perhaps to understand their mistakes through this type of approach. However, mentioning a past case such as Force India 2014, on which the FIA had already expressed its firm opinion considering it an episode incapable of setting a precedent, was certainly not done by chance.
Thinking that Ferrari men are foolish enough to want to propose a random situation because they no longer know what to appeal to automatically means declaring the people in charge of this exercise incompetent. Can we really mentally repeal such ineptitude? In the legal field, nothing can be considered closed if new elements could demonstrate that past choices have not considered certain factors.
For this reason, Laurent Mekies and his companions have decided to examine this story with the support of the French manager who, as mentioned, wanted to see his man at work and the reaction of the FIA as clearly as possible. Often a question is submitted to a court to understand how this legal body reacts in a specific case, with the clear objective of creating a future direction for the system of laws.
Forcing the hand, using more simplistic concepts, to identify the reaction of the international federation. We will find out in the future, the occasions will certainly be there, if the case analyzed will contribute to an adjustment of aim in such situations.
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