Italian blogger Leo Turrini, who is famously very close to proceedings at Scuderia Ferrari answered some fan questions on his blog in his newest blog entry, as he discussed several aspects surrounding the Maranello team:
On Sebastian Vettel and the German driver’s future with Ferrari: “To this day, Ferrari have no intention and no interest in replacing Sebastian Vettel. But I don’t know Seb’s secret thoughts. I hope he remains in Red in 2020, obviously with a better car.”
On the possibility of reintroducing free testing: “I would never have abolished the tests and I always said it. But they will not return for a long time, since the teams must justify the monstrous investments made in the simulators. It’s ridiculous, but it’s true.”
On Ferrari’s structural changes: “Many things have changed in the Ferrari racing department. Names are not important. The results will be important, if there are any. On Mattia Binotto there was a vision of a certain type from Sergio Marchionne. The then president thought that team principal and technical director were overlapping roles. I think he was wrong.”
Leo Turrini was asked to tell a funny story from one of his meetings with Ferrari: “At the 2013 dinner, Raikkonen told Alonso: I’ve never had a fight with a teammate, I hope you don’t want to be first. And then he started drinking.”
On Sebastian Vettel’s controversial penalty in Canada: “Look, everything has changed with Montreal. My friend Pirro was certainly in good faith, but that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. And unfortunately the ones who paid were Vettel and Ferrari. Now a less rigid approach prevails when evaluating such incidents. Let’s see if it lasts.”
On how Sergio Marchionne would have reacted to Ferrari’s performance in 2019: “I don’t have a crystal ball, I don’t know how things would have gone if Marchionne were still here. Surely he would have been very angry, before his health deteriorated he thought that overtaking Mercedes was imminent. Then, of course, for better or for worse, the Ferrari 2019 is also his baby, this cannot be denied.”
On Charles Leclerc: “Charles is the future of the Red Army. I hope he will stay in Maranello for at least ten years. Winning something, of course. The identity of his partner, in case of success, would not be so important.”
He was also asked when he personally thinks Ferrari will win another title again: “I answer you with pain: perhaps in 2021. Maybe…”
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