I honestly think Mattiaci was doing a good job there, He was decisive and brave, probably done too good a job in a short time infact. He saw how much was "broken" and tried to fix it for the long term... how dare he meddle in Ferrari's politics!
They need to concentrate on changing their car rather than changing the sport to suit them. They'll threaten to leave again and get what they want. F1 should call their bluff if they do. Ferrari seem to taking steps back rather than forward. They need to understand that they dont have a god given right to win.
I think F1 may potentially have outgrown Ferrari now too, should Ferrari go their own way. A long while back, Ferrari were the main car company involved in F1, and were definitely the biggest brand involved. F1 now has Mercedes (whose sales vastly outsell Ferrari's) and Red Bull (hugely well known brand), with names like Mclaren, Honda and Renault all as big in the public consciousness as Ferrari. Having Ferrari compete used to show that F1 is the pinnacle, the fact Ferrari no longer compete at the pinnacle, and others have outstripped them, makes them far less special.
They could be special again though, if they'd pull their heads out of their backsides and hire the right personnel. Vettel is walking in to a mess next season.
Maybe not a bad thing though (as strange as that may seem) With Kimi... let's just say in his twilight year(s) in F1, the focus for the future should be on him to reap the rewards of whatever they can implement (normally 3 years before a team "peaks"). Meantime, the fact he is walking into that mess gives him some kind of room for (if he is) under performing while they get their house in order. If they do, he can claim to be the catalyst, have a team built around him and emulate Schumacher. Alonso walking says how bad stuff is IMO, then sacking Mattiaci who was rubbing everyones backs up the wrong way by basically saying most the operation needed changing got punted too, Disarray. Hiring a cigarette salesman/yes man seems strange. Unless they find room for Ross Brawn.... and boy do they need somebody like him to steady the ship.... then they have no sign of improvement soon.
If Brawn was in charge, he'd have to clean house too, which they're apparently not interested in. But yes, Brawn would be the man for the job IMO. I imagine the tifosi wouldn't be too upset about it either.
The longer they aren't performing though, the harder it becomes for the cigarette salesman to negotiate with Bernie and make sure Ferrari stay special. You can't bluff Bernie when he can see your hand is getting weaker each hand. Red Bull didn't try to negotiate a special deal with Bernie when they were a new team in the midfield, they did it as multiple world champions. Now if Ferrari want to make sure their relationship stays special, they need to be showing they're deserving of it. Get the racing operations sorted and get competitive, and that becomes a lot easier. They'd have been far better served by limiting Mattiacci's remit to racing operations, and appointed Cigarette Man (that sounds like the world's worst superhero) to handle the corporate side of Ferrari F1.
Maybe he was spending this season getting experience at Lotus, would certainly explain why their car spent most the season alight....
Smoke Maldonado's, for a not so mild flavor and a bitter after taste that never satisfies. Official bines of Venezuela.
Official.. http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/2...vergne-to-leave-toro-rosso-at-the-end-of-2015 IMHO, shame to see JEV go..
Yes, I thought JEV had done enough to retain his seat and provide some experience and guidance to Verstappen. I think Torro Rosso are taking a big risk if they take on two very young, inexperienced and immature drivers at the same time.
Kinda why i feel he can have little complaint. He has benefited from it, now he is on the other side of it. Harsh as that may be, that's what they sign up for on the redbull programe.
I could probably copy and paste my comments about their sacking here! Once they've decided against promoting you to the big team, you no longer have a long term future at Toro Rosso either.
He's the guy who beat Ricciardo over the years they were together, and he's the one with ridiculously good race pace. I guess it's Red Bull's loss though, whoever gets him is going to have a great driver in the team..
As weird as it will sound, that's neither here nor there. He edged Ricciardo in their first season (even though DR had 5 points finishes to Vergne's 4), Season 2, Ricciardo had 6 points finishes to Vergnes 3 and finished ahead of him in the championship. Sure, Vergne was arguably more consistent (lots of 12th places) but over their 2 years, Ricciardo had more points finishes and a vastly superior qualifying record. I think the fact Ricciardo tended to almost outperfrom the car in quali and the car, when filled with fuel again found it's true pace and slid backwards during races whereas Vergne was qualifying pretty much where he should be and maintained it, painted him in a more positive light than Ricciardo sliding backwards from a good quali. Vergne is a very good, very solid driver that delivers what is expected. Ricciardo has the flash of brilliance to outperform/,aximise the car when it's on. Not hard to see why he got the Red Bull drive and Vergne didn't. Similar to Kvyat IMO, Kvyat this year has shown flashes of brilliance but is very raw and very inconsistent, needs refining. Vergne (who has had his best season in F1 IMO) just doesn't really have those flashes, perhaps apart from on inters, he seems mighty on them!
Matt Somerfield‏@SomersF1 Another shot of the 2015 @Marussia_F1Team Nose / Front Wing on their WT model courtesy of @Calum_F1 please log in to view this image please log in to view this image Such a shame... Anyways, please log in to view this image Tobias Grüner F1 @tgruener · 8h8 hours ago The #F1 commission has decided: standing safety-car-restarts & double points will be scrapped 2015. AMuS exclusive: http://ams.to/WK please log in to view this image Tobias Grüner F1 @tgruener · 7h7 hours ago #F1 Radio clampdown also scrapped from 2015 rules. Drivers & engineers allowed to talk unrestrictedly about whatever they like. #AMuS Tobias Grüner F1 @tgruener · 8h8 hours ago #F1 Caterham has requested to run 2014 car & engine also next season. AMuS: http://ams.to/WK
Hard to say by looking at it, but that Marussia looks pretty neat, check how tight it is around the back especially! looks like it would have been a good step. Caterham want to run the 2014 car and engine combo? they will be (even more) desperately off the pace from about the 4th race in, might be a 107% rule job for them?
