F1 MERCENARY wrote:VDV23 wrote:F1 MERCENARY wrote:VDV23 wrote:Strange and sad decision for me. After taking over from Domenicali (I won't count Mattiacci since he was a hatchet man, not given a chance to make a difference) - the difference has been night and day. My only gripe with him is that he hanged for so long to keep Kimi in the team and that he didn't realize Vettel is not bringing the title home unless Ferrari have consistently the best car on the grid with some margin.
That is the most factually incorrect statement in this entire thread.
The successes Ferrari have enjoyed while Arrivabene was at the helm was entirely thanks to Mattiacci's work in his extremely short tenure as Team Principal.
ALL the moves he made, which were questioned beared fruit and Arrivabene was there to take credit for it, when in fact he didn't do much if anything in his time with the team. If I were on Ferrari's board I would be lobbying for the company to make a public apology and ask him to return with more pay and assurances to remain with the company even after F1 because the man has proven himself to be one of the most valuable assets in the companies history, and his efforts in F1, while vastly trumping his prior accomplishments with the company publicly, are a far cry from what he accomplished before ever being called up to run F1 operations.
Entirely thanks to Mattiacci? Talk about factually incorrect.
Anyway, I "skipped" Mattiacci as a TP for Ferrari because he was not really there to lead Ferrari to success, his job was to give the foundations for the next TP. Letting go so many people does not make him popular for the employees who are staying and that was my entire point.
On this topic, I'm guessing "sacrificing" Mattiacci was Ferrari internal politics at their finest. You move one of your top top guys within the company in order to set him up for the way out. But I guess that's besides the point as well.
Sorry but I am 100% correct.
The thing most people don't understand is that good leaders make the best decisions for a company, regardless of having to cut ties with longstanding personnel, without listening to anyone else. That's what Mattiacci did and how he did it and it proved unpopular with many people, but it in no way does that mean his actions weren't the right ones for Ferrari. It was Mattiacci who signed Vettel away from Red Bull, and he was the one who signed James Allison, and contrary to popular belief, he didn't get rid of as many people ad many assume, and he offered full support to many staff members he felt were paramount to Ferrari's success.
And wouldn't you know it… Ferrari is enjoying success.
And it was also Mattiacci who fought to loosen engine regs so manufacturers can further develop and refine their power units to bridge the gap to Mercedes.
But yeah, I'm factually incorrect.
You're now just making up & spinning stuff.
First off - Vettel, I would hardly categorize as game-changing move for Ferrari. Vettel was (is) a downgrade to Alonso and he bottled it over a season when he had the car. Ricciardo had just wiped the floor with him in 2014 + Hamilton and Alonso were the better options. And if you can make the argument that Danny and Lewis were impossible to get, he still couldn't keep a better driver who was already at the team and replaced him with in an inferior one. That's not a win in my book.
Secondly, Ferrari secured Allison in
mid-2013, around June (and paid a bit extra to cash-strapped Lotus so he can join immediately). Mattiacci joined Ferrari F1 in
April 2014, just before the Chinese Grand Prix. Unless something has changed and time is no longer passing by linearly, I'm pretty confident to say that Allison's joining was in no way influenced by Mattiaci. But feel free to correct me, of course.
What you are saying about Mattiacci's decision-making in no way contradicts what I have said. He made good decisions but he was hired to pull the trigger on exactly those tough decisions. Obviously he was set up and someone didn't want him in Ferrari long-term. So he cleaned house and the next guy took over. I don't recall saying his actions were not the right thing to do. It's just that he wasn't hired to be Team Principal for Ferrari F1.
And are we crediting him for changing the PU regs now as well? Every non-Mercedes fought for that, and that fight extended way above the Team Principals due to Merc's enormous advantage. And FIA & FOM were more than open to ideas to bridge that huge gap.