Lately, Ferrari has been showing slight signs of recovery after a start to the season that fell well below expectations. Nevertheless, there is a climate of disappointment and pessimism within the red team, a pessimism justified by the fact that Maranello has not secured a title in 15 years. The common feeling is that the Italian team lacks the foundations to turn its fortunes around. In fact, not just the foundations, but the top leadership figures. Former driver Ivan Capelli discussed this in an interview with Automoto.it.
Ivan Capelli analyzes: “We need to understand who’s in charge and what can be done.”
“If we compare with my time, nothing is missing now. Luca di Montezemolo had recently become president and found a team in crisis, where, despite having prominent figures like Migeot or Postlethwaite in charge of the technical side, the car was, in reality, a failure,” recalls Ivan Capelli, remembering the situation at Ferrari in 1992. He then continues his discussion, drawing a comparison between the two eras: “With Jean Alesi, my teammate, we struggled to figure out what to do. Today, they don’t have the problems we had back then because they have everything in terms of structures, wind tunnels, simulators. From a technical standpoint, today’s Ferrari has nothing in common with the one from back then.”
According to Ivan Capelli, the issue with the ‘new Ferrari’ lies elsewhere: “At that time, everything had to be built, and indeed, Montezemolo did it, but it took time. Today, on the other hand, it’s different, particularly from a managerial perspective. We had Luca di Montezemolo as president, there was a figure at the top, but today, Fred Vasseur’s role is unclear. We don’t know if he has free rein or if he must answer to Benedetto Vigna, the CEO, or if Chairman John Elkann intervenes. It’s this lack of clarity at the top that, in my opinion, then filters down to the lower levels. We hear about technicians leaving, talk of new people coming in, but we don’t know when and who, and this, psychologically, is detrimental to those who remain because they don’t know if they’ll have a leader above them and whether their work will be valued or not.” – he pointed out.
The former driver’s recipe is as follows: “When I look at Fred Vasseur, I see that in six months, he looks ten years older, and at Monza, on the pit wall, you could clearly see the tension of representing Ferrari. Clarity is needed at the top to understand who’s in charge and what can be done.” – Ivan Capelli concluded.
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