Ferrari replace Mattiacci as team principal

2014 F1 season

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Ferrari have confirmed the replacement of Marco Mattiacci as team principal, seven months after he took the job.

Mattiacci’s place will be taken by Maurizio Arrivabene. He has joined Ferrari from their sponsor Philip Morris, where he has been vice president of Marlboro global communication and promotions since 2007.

“We decided to appoint Maurizio Arrivabene because, at this historic moment in time for the scuderia and for Formula One, we need a person with a thorough understanding not just of Ferrari but also of the governance mechanisms and requirements of the sport,” said Ferrari chairman Sergio Marchionne.

Arrivabene has also represented F1 sponsors on the FIA’s F1 Commission since 2010, which Marchionne says gives him valuable insight into Ferrari’s position in the sport.

“Maurizio has a unique wealth of knowledge,” said Marchionne. “He has been extremely close to the scuderia for years and, as a member of the F1 Commission, is also keenly aware of the challenges we are facing.”

“He has been a constant source of innovative ideas focused on revitalisation of Formula One. His managerial experience on a highly complex and closely regulated market is also of great importance, and will help him manage and motivate the team. I am delighted to have been able to secure his leadership for our racing activities.”

Mattiacci moved over from Ferrari’s North American sales division to take over the running of the F1 team in April, when Stefano Domenicali resigned from his position following the team’s poor start to the season.

“We would also like to thank Marco Mattiacci for his service to Ferrari in the last 15 years and we wish him well in his future endeavours,” added Marchionne.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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101 comments on “Ferrari replace Mattiacci as team principal”

  1. It seems Ferrari are becoming a Premier League Football team. Sacking the Manager after half a season before they get a chance to make any real progress

    1. Well, to me it looks like they used Matiacci as an interim to change certain things and then leave again. (In corporate business fairly common).

      Maybe this is the first omen that Brawn is returning? ;0

      1. If Brawn is returning, why hire Arrivabene?

        I suspected Matiacci was an interim (for Brawn) as well, but IMHO this announcement contradicts that…

        1. Maybe because the new norm is to have those 3 bosses, like Mercedes has?

          I dont know, personally i don’t think he will return to Ferrari, but it would be great timing, when Newey is just stepping down a bit. ;)

          1. Forgetting that it was because of the 3 bosses that Brawn left Mercedes in the first place.

            It’s either No.1 or nothing, which fits quite well with Ferrari.

      2. @El Presidente I believe that F1 in general should reduce the dependence on Brawn and Newey. I am a fan of both and I believe in the last 25 years it is either Brawn or Newey cars that did the job one way or other apart from Fernando’s Renault of 2005 and 2006.

        Brawn and Newey are bored of F1 and it is time to bring in new prodigies and heroes who can propel F1 into the next age given some of the challenges F1 as an sport is facing. The new rule changes and the current mess of F1 has been a quite an intimidating item on them.

        1. I don’t think either had much of a role in the 2008 McLaren.

          Still a good point though. Every year since 1992, with the exceptions of 2005, 2006 and 2008, either Brawn or Newey has had some role in producing the championship winning car. It’s incredible how these two have dominated the sport.

          Just imagine what might have happened if they had teamed up!

      3. Apparently Brawn is returning with VW/Audi in 2017 (EJ – BBC).

        1. get out o’here!!!!

        2. Well he predicted Lewis would join Mercedes so who knows?

    2. Arrivabene has been working at Juventus, the Agnelli’s football team for a few years now, they’re currently topping the table in Serie A.

    3. I like the moves McLaren is making but I’m very worried about Marchione’s moves…

    4. I suspect Mattiacci turned out to be a dud so they replaced him. Why they don’t try to use someone who’s run a team in the past or at least been at the top of a team is something I question. Probably would have been better off getting Briatore…that’s right….I said it!

  2. So – “Mattiacci seeks a ‘project that will challenge Mercedes?”

    1. I’d pay a second Sky subscription for this month to see Alonso’s face…

  3. Wow,I can’t believe what type of joke this team has became…really sad. Now I fully understand Fernando’s decision to leave.

    1. I agree. Now it seems like the continous manager sackings of the early 1990s are beginning to rule their scene again. So sad how that 2006 team came to this. Bit by bit, it crumbled.

      Vettel indeed has a mountain to climb – Schumacher at least had Jean Todt appointed way earlier than when he came and the team was on an upward trend for three years by 1996. Vettel joins a train which is still accelerating down a steep slope.

    2. I’ve said it in the comments section before, and I’ll say it now again; Ferrari has become a disgrace.

      I’m a tifosi, just for the record.

      1. Tifoso = singular
        Tifosi = plural

        1. Yes ofc, sorry. But I can say that I’m part of the tifosi group then, or?

  4. “As a member of the F1 Commission, is also keenly aware of the challenges we are facing.”

    “He has been a constant source of innovative ideas focused on revitalisation of Formula One.”

    Translation: This is a guy who will make the FIA give us what we want.

    1. @keithcollantine Add to that the arrival of Vettel (who Bernie has always liked), and I feel that things will begin to turn in Ferrari’s favor politically. But that will be useless if they don’t have a good enough car.

    2. Wow – that seems entirely probable.

      Back to the old ways then…

      1. Im glad I get to dust off the old Ferrari International Assistance jpeg, its been a few years.

        1. @bascb seems to have first dibs on its use

    3. Yep, clearly shows that Ferrari is longing back to the days of Ferrari International Assistance being perfectly accurate @keithcollantine, @journeyer.

      First job: get them to be able to drive up cost even more by changing the engines each week if needed to catch up.

    4. He’s been quite succesful navigating the political minefield that is Serie A as well as working in the tobacco industry so he should be well prepared for the constant in-fighting and politics of F1.

      1. That was also my first though.

        add up :

        Vettel
        Fezza
        Bernie
        Jean Todt

      2. +1 experience and cynicism always helps. (Offtopic, but thats exactly why Macca should take Jenson instead of Kevin for 2015. Loads more experience and I have a feeling that JB is a bit more cynical).

    5. Good spot. So, Ferrari is going back to its tried and tested ways of winning the sport off-track than on-track.

      1. Probably you forgot to add the quotes, but if not… that’s ridiculous! How can they win…. something… off-track?!? It’s not like they dominated in the V8 era. There’s absolutely no chance to return to V10s or V12s. The V6s are…. probably…. cheaper, at the moment it doesn’t look like so, but the V6s were the winning card Mercedes knew they have, so that’s why they threatened to retire if F1 won’t change to V6s. So, I think we can say Mercedes won off-track… because they were those who wanted mostly the changes and threatened with the retirement, then they won everything right from the start. It kinda looks like FIA made them a favour.

        1. They won by shuffling the deck in their favor. For instance by getting the FIA to protest the verdict of it’s own stewards. When Ferrari couldn’t get their mass tuned damper to work properly and when Bridgestone couldn’t beat Michelin.

          1. @patrickl, Briatore always blamed McLaren, not Ferrari, for the ban on mass dampers, claiming that it was revenge for Renault having raised questions with the FIA about McLaren’s “J-damper” in 2005.

            As for the V6 engines, Newey claimed that most of the designers and engine manufacturers within the sport wanted a V6 engine from the start. The only reason, he claimed, why the FIA pushed for a four cylinder engine was because VW, who had sent delegates to the talks on the current engine format, had indicated that they would join F1 if the FIA gave them their preferred engine format – only to promptly turn about and then tell the FIA that they weren’t interested once the decision had been made.

        2. It was Renault who made a big push for the 1.6 V6’s and threatened to quite F1 if they weren’t introduced, While Ferrari were battling for 1.4 So to leave that out paints a rather different picture than what actually happened.

    6. I thought this was even clearer:
      “…we need a person with a thorough understanding not just of Ferrari but also of the governance mechanisms and requirements of the sport”

      I almost admire the fact they seem to be being quite upfront about it!

    7. “Translation: This is a guy who will make the FIA give us what we want. ”

      @keithcollantine – Spot on. THis was exactly what I read when I read the whole article. I fgured that in the last 5 years Ferrari did not have the best relationship with the FIA, CVC and Bernie compared to their ultra successful Schu- Todd – Brawn era !!!. This is the first step to fix. I think this whole thing was part of the larger plan.

      Vettel and Horner are Bernie’s Prodigy. The move to Ferrari has been well planned for years and executed. Look at the connection now. Vettel – Bernie – Todt – Maurizio. Now that is what we call a team. This is what is meant by Challenges , Innovation and Revitalization !!!!

    8. @keithcollantine, Agreed. That seems to be Ferrari’s tactic. I’m sure heavyweights like Mercedes and Honda already see what’s coming and will keep a close eye on the FIA. The two of them have a lot of leverage and shouldn’t be bullied by Ferrari demands.

  5. Mattiacci was put there midway through this season to win both titles. He didn’t, did he? He failed.

    :)

  6. Also, based on the “we wish him well in his future endeavours”, does that mean Mattiacci isn’t just out of Scuderia Ferrari, he is out of Ferrari full stop?

    1. That’s also how it reads to me.
      Maybe something got lost in translation.

    2. I think its just a standard message as its not yet known / ready to be announced where he will show up @journeyer.

      1. Hm, looking at it again, its quite possible that indeed he is being ditched completely, in a nice move by Marchionne to do away with somebody who might be an internal threath to himself maybe? Would make sense to me, altough it might just be he stopped fitting Sergio’s purposes (seems Marchionne is that kind of boss)

        1. @bascb We’re back to the days where being the Ferrari Team Principal was a poisoned chalice. How Jean Todt did not get poisoned by that same chalice will always be a mystery to me.

          1. Todt didn’t build his career in Ferrari, did he? He ran Peugeot’s motorsport operations quite successfully till LdM poached him. After Schumacher and Brawn joined the Scuderia, he was set. Wasn’t there something about each of the three men having contracts with Ferrari that required the other two to be on the team as well?

            And when he finally left the team, he had those seven WCCs to his credit. Pretty hard to poison a legacy like that.

        2. @bascb, A graduate from the Machiavelli School of Business ?

        3. Wow wow wow, Mattiacci vs Marchionne. A future civil war in Ferrari ?

    3. That’s how I’m reading it, but I read elsewhere that he’s staying with the company, just not the F1 team, so I don’t know.

  7. Just a thought: Maybe Mattiacci’s sole purpose was to get Alonso out of the team.

    Job done. Thanks for coming.

    1. Possibly? If that’s the case then Ferrari are mental, I’m no Alonso fan but clear to see that he has been dragging that car as high as he can and always drives with everything he has.

      1. I doubt that it was Ferrari’s choice, at least not 100%. I think Alonso is sick of dragging the car!

        However, if it was, you are right. I didn’t like Alonso, but he has become much more likeable as well as one of the best drivers out there in under-performing machinery. He seems to be able to get more out of a dog of a car than most. I have slowly gone from dislike, to begrudging respect, finally to liking him.

        1. petebaldwin (@)
          24th November 2014, 16:05

          By more likeable, you mean not fighting for a championship!

          Notice how Nico became a bit less likeable this year!? If you threw Ricciardo into a title fight, I bet you’d even see the strains

    2. I think it was, but not only that. It looks like a typical interim-job, also the time-scheme. not just get rid of/ try to keep Alonso, but also others, and other processes and structures of employees. It remains to be seen of course if he was successful at what he did.

    3. @kazinho its other way around, from reports of adam cooper and BBC, he was fired for losing alonso. His handling of alonso made upper management and pierro ferrari unhappy and so was replaced.

      1. Just read Adam Cooper’s piece. If it’s true that Alonso got a severance payout, that is absolutely astounding and remarkable. I am not surprised that Mattiacci is gone.

        Reports circulated from a couple of months ago when the “Alonso to McLaren” rumours got stronger was that Alonso had a €30M buyout clause. If Alonso has gone to McLaren Honda AND Ferrari have PAID him to do so, I am not surprised that Mattiacci has been booted. How would he handle negotiations with Bernie if this is how he negotiates with a driver who wants out?

        1. THE PROBLEM was that Mattiacci signed Vettel before closing Alonso’s contract termination. He agreed with Vettel a confidentiality clause NOT to announce his contract till finishing their negotiation with ALO but Vettel made it public (and ALONSO did not like it, he felt It was disrespectful) and negotiotiations got more difficult. not very intelligent from his side.

  8. Joe Saward had the scoop first!

    1. Chris (@tophercheese21)
      24th November 2014, 13:42

      Really? Well, I think that deserves some congratulations!

      Let’s celebrate with a game!
      Pick a number between 1 and 10.

      1. Oeiiiiiiiiiiii! (another davidnotcoulthard account) (@)
        24th November 2014, 15:16

        @tophercheese21 e

  9. uhmm

    Arrivabene in Italian means literally ‘arrived well’
    i can’t help but LOL… although Keith’s theory makes the whole thing look quite ‘shady’ to say the least

  10. They need Ross Brawn if they need to get on top of their struggles and become a team it once was during early 2000’s. I also thought Mattiachi was interim replacement for Brawn (as few above posters also felt) but hiring Arribavene is a move in opposite direction. Seems like Ferrari wants to badly hurt “the legend” it once was and become one of the normal teams on the grid with a huge budget.

    1. Why the holy hell is everyone (not just you @mjf1fan) saying ‘they need Ross Brawn’? He wasn’t the Team Principal at Ferrari, he was their technical director. He plugged away on the car and race strategy whilst Jean Todt did all the earth-moving and politicising that a Team Principal roll brought.

      1. he can do Todt’s work and trust in Allison for doing his old Job. If something, ROss is a very good politician on F1, just remember last year with Mercedes and the Pirelli-Gate, they went almost scot-free!

      2. @optimaximal

        I understand your view point totally, but as @matiascasali said above Brawn can do Todt’s work. And besides all the points which he said above I would like to add that it is because of Brawn that Mercedes tasted such a successfull season after 3 years of sluggishness. Their 2013 and 2014 campaign were brilliant. It was Ross’s hardwork where he poached and hired people and collectively they worked together for Mercedes domination this year.

        So for Ferrari to get on top, they need Ross much more then they ever wanted him. Its just my opinion though. :)

  11. That’s a good step – promoting from within Ferrari wasn’t a good idea. SD and MM were too entrenched in the politics and weren’t strong enough to create a calm working environment. An external guy always brings a fresh POV and is more likely to pinpoint the problems.

  12. So when will Ferrari ownership realize that a certain Luca DiMontezemolo has been making one bad decision after another for a good long while now?

    1. Oh, right, shows how much I’ve been following the sport!

    2. In my defence, nothing’s changed since he left either…

    3. I think it nicely shows how its not a single person, but more the culture at Ferrari holding them back @maciek.

      1. Totaly agree with you @Bascb. Its the culture which is holding them back. One just have to look at how bad RedBull were in the winter testing this year, who would have thought they would finish second on the constructor’s championship. Its the dedication they showed throughout the year which made it possible for them to finish bwhind Mercedes.

        If Ferrari was in same mess at this year’s winter testing, I’m pretty much sure they wouldnt have gone this far.

        1. If we look at what they did (firing just about everyone who worked on the car or the team management), I’d harbour a guess they would have fired even more people @mjf1fan.

          Its precisely because of this that they have trouble luring in promising engineers like Newey, Pedromo, and others.

          1. @bascb, but it seems like it almost worked for them isnt it. Forget Mercedes for a moment and look at next in constructor,s championship.. Redbull some 100 points clear of Williams. I feel it speaks something.

            I may be wrong as I dnt fully remember but Prodomou was poached by McLaren’s last year end and Newey is leaving them because of the regulations which are so stiff that he cant so anything creative. You can always correct me if I’m wrong.

            But my point is, even after so much of shuffling RedBulls were the second best team, I really didnt expected them to be there after the winter testing. Could you have expected Ferrari to be there had they been in same situation?
            I think no, because of the reasons you mentioned above in your first comment. They need to get rid of this ‘culture’ thing if they want to succeed.

          2. Edit- Newey cant do* anything creative.
            By the way I’m no RedBull fan.

          3. No, no, @mjf1fan, I did not mean RBR firing people – it was more people who left by themselves wanting a new challenge after 4 years of winning – but about Ferrari who already fired a lot of people and how they would fire even more had they found themselves even further behind, like Red Bull did, at the pre season tests.

            When we look at Ferrari – it seems they have made hardly any progress during the year at all. Red Bull in contrast made a huge step forward after the shock of testing, and did get closer to Mercedes, at least until the last couple of races as you mention, and they finished a deserved 2nd in the championship.

          4. Oops sorry i misunderstood you. My mistake :)

            But yes, you are correct,Ferrari would have done this and still they are at same level. @bascb

  13. No surprises here. Mattiacci was appointed by di Montezemolo, which was in turn ousted. Marchione probably didn’t think it is a good idea, so he replaced him with a man, which is better in Marchione’s eyes than Mattiacci.

    1. Mattiacci is always considered as Marchione’s man. American Ferrari!

  14. I’m not sure Alonso or Vettel expected this.

  15. Kind of reminds me of the early ’90’s when they had a revolving door of team principals before Todt.

    1. Yes this *is* the early nineties all over again.

  16. It is very hard to read into Italian business decisions. From my experience, it is very hard to understand what goes through principals (directors) mind. They never fire anyone, generally they don’t like anyone too intelligent and professional around, and they work and feed with hope different people who compete for the same spot. If they want you out, they will make the surroundings difficult to do your work at the same time making promises which will eventually fade away. Only time will tell what was going on behind the doors.
    Enzo Ferrari was an exception maybe, because he was very straight forward.

  17. my only thought here is when will I next see Vettel winning a F1 race ?????

    1. Next year without problems. Want to bet?

      1. @Alex I am a fan of Vettel , but something is itching in my hands that I should take this bet…..

        Given the physical challenges of Digital communication. A Beer for a bet …..Same time next year If I Win the bet …. I will drink the beer On my behalf and If you win the bet next year I will drink it on your behalf :)

        Trust me for once I would love to lose this bet :)

  18. I’m sure Alonso has bought a case of champagne today and toasting “Dio mio! Thank god, I got out of there!”

    I can’t imagine what Vettel’s thinking heading there.

    1. @@freelittlebirds IMHO I think both knew all these were coming.

      Don’t you think Big Luca would not have given heads up to Alonso and so did Bernie/Horner to Vettel :)

      I still believe these all are part of the larger plans shaping up. Whether this will bring success or not is to be seen but atleast I feel they are going by a certain plan.

    2. Bernie would surely have known about what was going on (he always does), and apparently Bernie was a driving force to get Seb to Ferrari.

      Bernie the used car salesman just sold Seb a lemon. Possibly his greatest swifty ever.

      I hope Vettel has a few performance clauses in that contract.

  19. Actually, ESPNF1 mentioned this in an article last week, saying that Arrivabene’s arrival may be a huge improvement for Ferrari, and that Mattiacci was only ever going to be an interim boss. I think, and openly hope, that Ferrari will win next year and that Vettel will be a 5 time champion.

    1. If Ferrari are to win next year…then it will be because the engine freeze has been lifted….as this season they have been visibly left behind by any Mercedes engine……no change in regs, then highly unlikely any win

  20. I was wondering when Ferrari would start making it hard for me to say I’m a fan again, and there it is.

    Class call, Ferrari. Now ditch Kimi before 2015, get the FIA to approve your new spec engine and perhaps buy out the EU to run Marlboro sponsorship again.

    1. Maybe not Ferrari, but the FIAT-Chrysler-group might have the money to buy themselves out of the tobacco ad ban, honestly speaking. Ofc it’s never ever going to happen, but your comment is good.

      1. No they don’t have that kind of money @il-ferrarista, one of the reasons for the “floatation” of Ferrari (and the group as such) is to repay the huge load of loans on the group.

        And if Money was a way forward, I am sure the likes of PM and BAT etc would have already done so, in fact, it arguably helped them buy time for putting off a ban as long as they did already.

  21. The first and last time we see Mattiacci’s smile,.

    1. Good lad in a tough environment.

  22. This seems pretty symptomatic of the reason major manufacturers have so much difficulty winning in F1, everything is driven by the marketing dept.
    Could this guy be being groomed for Bernies job, his CV looks more appropriate for that job than it does for rescuing a team failing despite its budget.

    1. Hopefully, this guy is being brought in just to deal with politics and with chasing sponsors, so that James Allison can focus on building the engineering team that can work in peace, without nonsense politics and power struggles boiling over into the engineering department.

      1. But that wouldn’t be Ferrari.

  23. Shall we be allowed to refer to Ferrari as the “revolving door”?

  24. Ferrari need a fast car or the fastest car. Simple.

    I hope Allison is talented enough to deliver that. Then they can have Mojo Jojo/ Wil. E. Coyote as the team principal and still win the championships.

    I don’t think any of these fellas moving around are making a difference. The main guy now is Allison. I hope he delivers.

    The Abu Dhabi GP was a damning verdict of how poor Ferrari is. They couldn’t catch a crippled Merc.

  25. Does anyone over there in Maranello know what’s going on? Confusion reigns supreme.

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