How to work at Ferrari: former team member reveals the sacrifice behind 22 years in Maranello. Francesco Cigarini was asked to give some advice.

Working at Ferrari is not for everyone. Doing it for 22 years is even rarer. But what does it really take to achieve such a goal?

The advice of Cigarini
The editorial staff of Formula1.it recently had the opportunity to interview Francesco Cigarini, former mechatronics specialist for the Scuderia.

When he was asked to give some advice, based on his personal experience, to those who dream of working for the Prancing Horse, Cigarini replied: “First of all you need passion, and you need to know that when a dream comes true – like the one of working at Ferrari – then comes the sacrifice, so it is not all roses.

“To make a dream become reality, in any field, you have to sacrifice much of the rest: time, friendships, many things you would like to do; also because you travel, you have to deal with time zones…

“One of the things I can say is that, when the dream becomes reality, it is not like a Mulino Bianco family: you have to work hard, you must stay focused, be capable and handle the pressure even when you do not want to.

“When the car breaks down between FP3 and qualifying, there is a lot of pressure… These things happen and it is a strong pressure, because you think ‘if I fail, we miss qualifying’. I remember very well that once it happened with Vettel [at the 2019 German GP] and he did not take part in qualifying because we were not able to solve a problem.

“You have to be determined and accept many things which, when you are inside and everyone’s eyes are on you, always fuel your passion. And they require a lot of sacrifice,” concluded Cigarini.