Former Ferrari engineer Luigi Mazzola believes the person leading the Scuderia must be physically present at Maranello if the team is to build a strong technical group and create the right working culture. His deliberately provocative advice for a Ferrari team principal is simple: “You bring a camp bed.”
It was probably one of the most unusual lines delivered by Luigi Mazzola during an exclusive interview with News F1. Behind the joke, however, lies a serious idea about leading Ferrari at Maranello: the person responsible for the team needs to be inside the company, particularly when trying to construct or rebuild a technical group.
Luigi Mazzola: “You have to be there”
Luigi Mazzola recalled how Jean Todt would regularly pass through Ferrari’s offices and workshop while people were working. According to the former Ferrari engineer, the purpose was not necessarily to monitor employees or check what they were doing.
The message was different. Jean Todt’s presence showed the workforce that the person responsible for the team was there alongside them and sharing the same challenge. Luigi Mazzola summed up that message as: “I’m here too while you’re working.”
For Luigi Mazzola, that is the real strength of physical presence inside a Formula 1 organisation.
Why Ferrari needs the ‘camp bed’ mentality
The idea of bringing a camp bed to Maranello comes directly from that philosophy. A team principal tasked with rebuilding a Formula 1 team cannot restrict the job to managing race weekends or attending meetings remotely.
The team principal has to live the working environment, get to know the people inside it and understand which engineers and technicians are genuinely making a difference. Just as importantly, the person in charge has to transmit energy and create a genuine sense of belonging throughout the organisation.
“This is Ferrari”
Luigi Mazzola regards Ferrari as a particularly demanding environment because of both the scale of the company and the immense pressure surrounding the brand. That wider discussion over Ferrari’s leadership structure makes the role of those guiding the Formula 1 operation especially significant.
From Luigi Mazzola’s experience, this makes the physical presence of the person in charge even more important. What happens at the circuit represents only one part of the operation. Much of the real work takes place at Maranello, where hundreds of people design, develop and build the Formula 1 car.
Ferrari leadership means being present
For Luigi Mazzola, leadership is not simply about issuing instructions. It is also about involving people and making them feel part of the project.
Jean Todt again represents the central example. Being seen in the offices and workshop helped communicate that the challenge belonged to the entire team rather than only to the engineers, mechanics or personnel carrying out individual tasks.
That presence can become a way of motivating people while also recognising the importance of Ferrari’s human capital. It is an approach that places personal involvement at the centre of Ferrari team leadership.
People must come before development
Luigi Mazzola also connects this philosophy directly to the construction of Ferrari’s technical department. Before development can progress, the team first needs competent and dependable people.
Once that foundation exists, development can be built around it. Innovation can then follow, together with the constant search for the limits of performance.
In Luigi Mazzola’s view, human capital and technological capital therefore have to grow together. Technical progress alone is not enough if the people responsible for delivering it are not properly organised, motivated and involved in the project.
The problem with ‘we’ll win next year’
During the interview, Luigi Mazzola also addressed Ferrari’s development cycle and the potential consequences of repeatedly reaching the end of a season with the message that the work being done will provide the foundations for the following year.
If that situation continues season after season, maintaining motivation inside the team can eventually become difficult. That is precisely when leadership becomes fundamental.
The group has to remain focused and motivated, but above all it needs to be kept moving in the correct direction. For Luigi Mazzola, the responsibility of the person in charge extends well beyond decisions made during a Grand Prix weekend.
Luigi Mazzola’s message to Ferrari
The “camp bed” therefore becomes much more than a humorous line. It summarises Luigi Mazzola’s philosophy of Ferrari leadership: whoever is responsible for the Scuderia needs to be present, know the people within the team and understand first-hand what is happening inside the company.
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