Mattiacci: News/articles discussion

[vcs316]

Apr.17 (GMM/Inautonews.com) Luca di Montezemolo has played down rumours Marco Mattiacci is only a stop-gap solution at the top of the Ferrari team.

It is rumoured Gerhard Berger or Ross Brawn are the more likely long-term successors following Stefano Domenicali’s sudden resignation.

Flavio Briatore has already ruled himself out. “I have another job,” he told La Repubblica newspaper.

Ferrari president Montezemolo, however, rejected the rumours, insisting Mattiacci is the man for the job.

“He will already start to make a difference at the Chinese grand prix,” he is quoted by the Ansa news agency.

“He’s going to be at the helm for a long time. I am also going to be closer to the team during this transition, taking a more hands-on role until Marco gets the
hang of things,” Montezemolo reportedly added.

Italian Briatore, the former Renault team boss, said he backs Domenicali’s exit.

“They needed to shake things up,” he told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “You can’t keep saying ‘we’re looking ahead to next year’.
“Stefano is a hard worker, but F1 is a competition and results are what matter. There can be no excuses when you have a driver as good as Alonso,” he added.

Briatore also played down criticism that Mattiacci will struggle in the F1 paddock due to his lack of experience.
“When I arrived at Benetton,” he is quoted by Repubblica, “I was selling t-shirts. He has been selling Ferrari cars.”

http://www.inautonews.com/mattiacci-...e#.U094zVWSyGM

[abbottcostello]

They could use prankster like Berger to lighten up the work atmosphere! Unless Mattiaci has some immediate signs of good leadership, like closing the gap to merc, I think he'll be promoted out of the TP post rather quickly, Luca needs results yesterday.

[Gerhard Berger]

"He will already make a difference at the Chinese Grand Prix"

Seriously?

[AfterLife]

The situation looks very promising when Briatore backs Ferrari shake up

[paneristi]

excellent points

Apr.17 (GMM/Inautonews.com) Luca di Montezemolo has played down rumours Marco Mattiacci is only a stop-gap solution at the top of the Ferrari team.

...

Italian Briatore, the former Renault team boss, said he backs Domenicali’s exit.

“They needed to shake things up,” he told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “You can’t keep saying ‘we’re looking ahead to next year’.
“Stefano is a hard worker, but F1 is a competition and results are what matter. There can be no excuses when you have a driver as good as Alonso,” he added.

Briatore also played down criticism that Mattiacci will struggle in the F1 paddock due to his lack of experience.
“When I arrived at Benetton,” he is quoted by Repubblica, “I was selling t-shirts. He has been selling Ferrari cars.”

http://www.inautonews.com/mattiacci-...e#.U094zVWSyGM

[stefa]

"He will already make a difference at the Chinese Grand Prix"

Seriously?

Yes he will! MM doesn't look like SD at all. So the difference will be spotted out from space

[Hornet]

"He will already make a difference at the Chinese Grand Prix"

Seriously?

Strange words from Luca DM. He can't make a difference if he needs to learn to get the hang of things first as Luca himself said.

Saying he will make a difference immediately will only create impossible expectations and put a ton of pressure on him.

[vcs316]

Fernando Alonso has yet to speak to new Ferrari Formula 1 team boss Marco Mattiacci, and says he needs time to judge if the management change will prove a success.

Former team principal Stefano Domenicali resigned earlier this week following a disappointing start to the 2014 F1 campaign, and Ferrari has appointed the CEO of its North American operations to replace him.

Alonso was a close ally of Domenicali, and has been in touch with him regularly this week, but revealed in China that he had not yet talked to Mattiacci.

"I didn't have a chance. I don't know if he is coming here, I guess so," said Alonso.

"It will be a good time to welcome him and I have really not much to say.

"I drive the car and hopefully he will be good enough to recognise what are the weak areas of the team, what are the strong areas of the team, and hopefully can improve them."

Alonso thinks that Mattiacci will need time to settle in to his new F1 role, and suggests it is important Ferrari pulls together to try to get him up to speed with what improvements are needed.

"I think we need to give him time and try to see how he settles down," he said. "It is too early to say if it will be very good or very bad.

"We need to make sure we have the facilities ready, or technical staff ready and put him in a condition to feel comfortable from day one."

DOMENICALI SACRIFICE MUST NOT BE FORGOTTEN

Alonso said he had to accept Domenicali's departure, but hoped Ferrari appreciated what its former team chief had done.

"Stefano decided he was probably not in the mood to continue anymore," he said.

"And with the feeling of taking on weight on the shoulders, he made a very responsible move.

"It is not easy when you have a very privileged position in an F1 team to be able to step back and say maybe it is better to move.

"He did, and [did so] for Ferrari to improve and for Ferrari's interest, so that is something that we cannot forget.

"We have to respect that decision."

The Spaniard added that there could be no quick fix for Ferrari's problems regardless of its restructure.

"For sure we will not improve by one second at this race, as I don't think Stefano designed the front wing or rear wing with his hands..." said Alonso.

"So we have to wait a little bit of time and see what we can improve and try to help all the team with the new people coming to make us a little bit stronger and get back some success from the past."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/113490?

[vcs316]

Ferrari's bosses are convinced that the relatively unknown Marco Mattiacci is just who its Formula 1 team needs to lead it to the front of the grid.

Mattiacci has already been involved in lengthy meetings in Maranello this week, and he starts work immediately on the pit wall at this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix.

While big name figures from inside the sport would have grabbed headlines as the replacement for Stefano Domenicali, Ferrari instead felt it was more important to have someone who understood the Ferrari organisation rather than simply having a knowledge of F1.

It has been suggested that while learning how the sport works is a big task, it is not as complicated as getting on top of the machinations inside Maranello.

In Mattiacci, Ferrari has someone who excels in the latter - for he has become a golden boy through his achievements in expanding Ferrari's road car business in the Far East and the United States.

Having originally moved to Ferrari from Jaguar in 1999, Mattiacci worked in the Middle East before heading the product launch for Maserati in the United States.

A promotion to become President and CEO of the Ferrari Asia Pacific Region in June 2006, was following by a switch to a similar role in North America.

His drive and management skills helped Ferrari increase its sales by 20 per cent in the United States, with it become the Prancing Horse's biggest market. Those efforts were rewarded with the 2012 Automotive Executive of the Year Award.

Mattiacci's work there brought him in to contact with Ferrari's worldwide motorsport programme, especially in sportscars, and also marked him out by di Montezemolo as one of the Italian company's brightest young managers.

Di Montezemolo believes his skill set will be well placed to help the Ferrari F1 team move forward and recover from its disappointing start to the 2014 campaign.

And beyond just improving how Ferrari works, it is hoped that Mattiacci will be able to help the F1 team maximise the commercial and structural resources of its road car division - just as Mercedes has done - to help push its team on to success.

Crucially, Mattiacci arrives highly trusted by senior management, which will make life easier for him to make changes that he feels are necessary.

He also comes with no F1 baggage, which means he can approach matters with a fresh perspective to help the team become more reactive to the sport's current needs.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/113454

[vcs316]

Fernando Alonso has admitted there will be no quick fix for Ferrari in the wake of Stefano Domenicali's departure and warned F1's most famous marque are likely to remain uncompetitive until at least the second half of the 2014 campaign.

The reasons for Domenicali's resignation as team boss earlier this week are not difficult to detect. A Ferrari driver hasn't won the World Championship since before the Italian replaced Jean Todt as team boss while neither of the Scuderia's all-champion driver line-up have finished on the podium this season.

Even if the writing was on the wall for Domenicali after Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo walked out midway through the Bahrain GP two weeks ago as Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen trundled around in the midfield, this year's story, writ large across the nascent Drivers' and Constructors' Championship, is all-too familiar to the Spaniard after four years of title frustration at the Scuderia.

"We need to be honest with our situation, it's not where we want to be," said Alonso bluntly. "There are many places to improve. We know that in the first part of the championship we will not be as competitive as Mercedes, so we just need to maximise what we have and hopefully we'll be competitive later in the season.

"In this race, we will not improve by one second, because Stefano wasn't doing the front wing or the rear wing, so we need to wait and see what we can improve."

While Alonso has yet to speak to the Scuderia's newly-installed Team Principal Marco Mattiacci, formerly the group's chief executive in North America, the Spaniard has revealed he has maintained constant dialogue with his former boss since Domenicali made the unexpected - but nevertheless understandable - decision to stand down.

"Stefano is a great man, first of all, and I am a close friend of his - that is no secret. We still have a close relationship, we have been talking throughout the week, and that will continue because we have known each other for many years," said Alonso ahead of this weekend's Chinese GP.

"As a Team Principal he made good choices and did good things. We had missed opportunities in 2012 and 2010, and they missed an opportunity with Felipe [Massa] in 2008. If not, he would have three championships in the pocket.

"We need to accept what Stefano decided. He wasn't in the mood to continue with the feeling of having everything on his shoulders. We need to respect his decision."

Little is known of Mattiacci, hitherto inconspicuous to the F1 fraternity and conspicuously-absent on Thursday, with Alonso even professing not to know if he will meet his new boss in person this weekend.

"We need to give him time and get the team behind him," said the two-time champion. "We are really hoping that he will be successful and everyone is looking forward."

As Alonso crossed the line in Bahrain two weeks ago in a distant ninth, the Spaniard was seen to raise his arm in an apparent 'victory salute'. The gesture has, in some quarters, been interpreted as a sarcastic denouncement of the team's current position in the pecking order, but Alonso is adamant that there was nothing untoward in his signal.

"I was saying thanks to the mechanics," Fernando explained during Thursday's press conference. "They had been working hard after a problem on the engine unit. We didn't have a solution for the problem even at twelve o'clock on Sunday and then in the race we had everything in the place. They did a fantastic job - and when they were on the pitwall saying 'hello', I said 'hello' too."

http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/9269112?

[racingbradley]

This is all too sad.
A quick fix is not on the cards.We will all have to be patient.

[Hornet]

"As a Team Principal he made good choices and did good things. We had missed opportunities in 2012 and 2010, and they missed an opportunity with Felipe [Massa] in 2008. If not, he would have three championships in the pocket.

Exactly. People forgot how many times we've came close to winning under Stefano.

[Kingdom Hearts]

I looks like it was a suprise for Fernando that Stefano resigned.

[Kingdom Hearts]

The rumour is that Mattiacci is Fiat ultimate plan to replace Montezemolo.


http://www.speedweek.com/formel1/new...eheimplan.html

[Katu]

I looks like it was a suprise for Fernando that Stefano resigned.

don't say that, i'm sure that Fernando was to blame for that

[Hermann]

Don't explain why you waved to the wall Fernando, you are disturbing the press stories.

[Katu]

Don't explain why you waved to the wall Fernando, you are disturbing the press stories.

it's was goodbye wave to Stefano, now i get it

[Hermann]

it's was goodbye wave to Stefano, now i get it

Ever thought of working for BILD?

[Katu]

Ever thought of working for BILD?

my german is not that good, but if i practice, why not

[Greig]

Alonso saying Stefano does not do the front and rear wing? Is he lying because some on here told us Stefano was responsible for everything?

[Senna4Ever]

Alonso saying Stefano does not do the front and rear wing? Is he lying because some on here told us Stefano was responsible for everything?

If you would read in other forum or German Sport Bild you would know that Alonso is lying as he
a) isn't a good friend of Stefano
therefore
b) Alonso forced LdM to fire Stefano
therefore
c) Alonso knows he (Stefano) is designing the front & rear wing ... -> got to b)

Please be careful there must be sarcasm in there ...

Edit: only ask kindly ... would it be possible to unite those two threads about Alonsos remark about Stefanos resign? Would make things much easier as both are about the same topic as such ... just asking no demanding ...

[Kiwi Nick]

"It has been suggested that while learning how the sport works is a big task, it is not as complicated as getting on top of the machinations inside Maranello."

Wow, that really says a lot about why Ferrari is struggling. When it is more important to understand the palace intrigue and drama than the racing business, you begin to see why it is that a team with all the talent and money can't put a driver on the podium. Holy cow!

[Kiwi Nick]

Sounds like Alonso needs to be convinced that Mattiacci is a worthy replacement for SD. And he really seems to feel slighted. It doesn't appear that Mattiacci was Nando's first choice...or second...or third...or...

I hope Mattiacci turns it around before next year or you will see Alonso in a different car next year.

[Kiwi Nick]

Mattiacci is perfectly suited for the job...Luca's job. Luca is 66. After a couple of years with the Scuderia, Mattiacci will have the complete resume...Sales, Asia, USA, F1. That should set him up for a 25 year run as the president of Ferrari. Good for him.

[Alessandra]

This is all too sad.
A quick fix is not on the cards.We will all have to be patient.

+1

But of course it's a highly political statement from Alonso, as usual.

[Hornet]

Mattiacci is perfectly suited for the job...Luca's job. Luca is 66. After a couple of years with the Scuderia, Mattiacci will have the complete resume...Sales, Asia, USA, F1. That should set him up for a 25 year run as the president of Ferrari. Good for him.

I'm not a fan of the idea of sacrificing 2 years of our F1 campaign just so Marco can prepare to take Luca's position. If he isn't going to be our TP in the long term, I would prefer we get our self a long term TP as soon as possible. They can always let Marco have a side role in the F1 team to learn how things work.

[Winter]

Replacing Domenicali with somebody who has not any F1 history makes me think, that maybe Domenicali really resigned himself and that was his own decision to leave. If Luca made him leave and nothing changes, will Lucas head be next on the plate?

[Winter]

“He will already start to make a difference at the Chinese grand prix,” After the worst track to Ferrari and with these new upgrades coming in China, even me as a TP, would make a difference

[Senna4Ever]

+1

But of course it's a highly political statement from Alonso, as usual.

just to learn more ... what in his statement is political manner?

[Hermann]

+1

But of course it's a highly political statement from Alonso, as usual.

And your problem with that statement is....?