Domenicali Steps Down!

[Ciro Pabón]

I'd be curious: who hired Marmorini?

Clue: his name starts by Stefano and ends with Sacked.

Oh, sure, Briatore for Ferrari. That's a clear possibility, like Admiral Nelson for commander of the Spanish Fleet.

Now, Montezemolo is involved in Ferrari racing in ways that you, young padawans, may have forgotten (in the Platonic sense).

Just in case, he was Enzo Ferrari personal assistant.

He managed the scuderia since 1974 to win the fvcking '75 and '77 championships with Niki Lauda. You may have forgotten what that was, I haven't: I wouldn't have bet a rotten bean for Ferrari (actually, I'm a Hunt kind of guy).

Then, he left Ferrari for Fiat in 1978.

Fiat resurrected under his command, to be sincere, closing several business deals with other brands, deals that stand behind the company's relative success until today.

If that weren't enough, he made Ferrari (Ferrari!) profitable in the '90s.

Only young tadpoles, with gills and everything, can forget what Ferrari was in the 90's: a brand that had hemorrhaged money consistently during the whole decade.

Well, Mr. Cordero put it in such a position as is familiar today to everybody and his dog: the envy of car manufacturers of this world.

He created the recipe that Mercedes followed (you could be inclined to think that I might be exaggerating a tad here, specially if your German, but I'm Spanish, people: exaggerating is a way of life to me, apologies): be the luxury.

Luca saved the brand from this, a Ferrari 208 BT: 155 hp in a V8, enough said. My mother, at 76 years old, has a more powerful car... and it's a KIA.


Then he went to win the first championship for Ferrari in 1999, a position that this constructor hadn't had since 1983, for the love of Pete.

Finally, he signed Todt and the rest is history. In 2000 Ferrari won the championship they hadn't had since he left in the '70s, people.

Again, I don't like Mr. Cordero as a person, I cringe when I hear him talking, but you don't have to like a guy to enjoy his results.

This guy is unmovable, deal with it: tifosi owe him.

In Italy people can doubt Ferrari's chances: for example, here you have a Gazzeta's real comment:

"Quest'anno abbiamo bisogno di 4 assi. Abbiamo la squadra. Abbiamo Kimi.. Abbiamo Fernando. E ora abbiamo anche la macchina". Ahahahahahahahahahahah!"

...which in English means: "I have my reservations about Ferrari's capacity this year".

However, since Nuvolari people know what a difference an Italian can make in auto racing.

We all know, even if we don't realize it.

[WhiteBlue]

How on earth Ferrari signed Luca Marmorini to manage the fate of the V6 PU engineering, when he could not even manage a simple atmosferic V8 engine at Toyota...
He was the reason for Toyota´s failure, and his is the next head to be cut at Ferrari.
Place your bets.

I think this is an extreme simplification. In my view the differences in power unit performance have a lot more to do with management decisions than with technical decisions. Both Renault and Ferrari did not allocate nearly the resources that Mercedes did to to the power unit development. The second point is that none of the other two had the kind of win win situation when it comes to exploiting turbo driven victories for an existing road car range.

If you look at the Renault situation first you find that they did no mule testing which threw them back several weeks in software work and in fine tuning of the different components of the power unit. They also had no big motivation to involve resources from road cars into the effort to optimize all fuel efficiency options and do expensive performance related battery research, as Merc did with money outside of the F1 budget. A potential win by Red Bull does not do much for Renault road car sales, at least not as much as Ferrari or Merc are getting from winning.

Let's look at what went wrong in Maranello. The first thing is their philosophy of doing big atmo engines in their road car product range. Down sizing and down speeding as a concept is practically unused by the Maranello product range. They are just starting to do hybrids and turbos. Merc and their German competitors such as Porsche and BMW had a decade of research done in those fields which went directly to Brixworth where some clever people tied it all together with the needs of the chassis people in Brackley. Ferrari missed that opportunity all together or did not believe that Merc would pull out all the stops. I read that the gestione sportiva at Ferrari is completely separated from the road car business and they don't care to ask for help. This in my view is a self inflicted disadvantage which is the responsibility of the management of Ferrari who have to look at the wider picture. So would Domenicali be the man who should have taken the necessary action? Probably to a smaller part, but traditionally it is the president's job to make structural changes beyond the racing department's fence. And there Montezemolo failed badly. He did not even see this one coming.

Is it Marmorini who is to be blamed? That depends of the funding and the resources he was given. If the department was properly funded and the time frame set correctly be bears the full responsibility for an over weight PU. But I suspect that the weight problem is not with the ICE but with the hybrid components where Ferrari have no real competence and rely on Magneti Marelli instead of aggressively pushing things for years as Merc did. You see that some blame may lie with Marmorini but it looks suspiciously like again the upper management had some short-sightedness in the strategy game. And the blame for that deficit goes directly to Monte's desk as does the blame for the wrong road car policy. Ciro is right by saying that Monte did well for Ferrari 25 years ago. That is true. But past success is no excuse for continued failure and Monte did everything wrong he could since the end of the dream team period.

In my view there are plenty of reasons why Monte should be sacked and not his underlings. Sure, they are not good enough but the fact that they all fail miserably weights heavy on the shoulders of the man who selected them in the first place and makes all the important calls at Ferrari. As soon as there is another talent in view to lead Ferrari Monte should be given the boot.

[sennaf1god.94]

In my view the differences in power unit performance have a lot more to do with management decisions than with technical decisions.

That's why Domenicali has been sacked.

Montezemolo isn't anymore managing the F1 team like in the 70's, maybe is time for him to get hands dirty again.

Marmorini might have a two month deadline for sending FIA some changes to to the PU in the name of efficiency, before taking the big decission.

My 2 cents

[Dragonfly]

There was another Luca who went to work for FIAT after the engine freeze, but I can't remember his surname.

Just to correct my failing memory - it was not Luca but Paolo Martinelli who was part of the Ferrari dream team on the engine side.

[Kiril Varbanov]

There was another Luca who went to work for FIAT after the engine freeze, but I can't remember his surname.

Just to correct my failing memory - it was not Luca but Paolo Martinelli who was part of the Ferrari dream team on the engine side.

Yes. Some may mix it up with Luca Colajanni, who was head of press some time ago.

[FW17]

Domenicali had to go, in the years he was incharge there were no controversies such as beryllium, 2003 michellin wide tyre or 2005 indy stand off. I strongly believe that if Todt was still incharge at Ferrari Brawns's double diffuser, flexi wings etc could not have happened. Domenicali just did not play the FIA and FOM to Ferrari's advantage.

[donskar]

Well done, Ciro, reminding the young and the cynical that Luca Cordero de M has an enviable track record -- love him or hate him:

He managed the scuderia since 1974 to win the fvcking '75 and '77 championships with Niki Lauda. You may have forgotten what that was, I haven't: I wouldn't have bet a rotten bean for Ferrari (actually, I'm a Hunt kind of guy).

Then, he left Ferrari for Fiat in 1978.

Fiat resurrected under his command, to be sincere, closing several business deals with other brands, deals that stand behind the company's relative success until today.

If that weren't enough, he made Ferrari (Ferrari!) profitable in the '90s.

Only young tadpoles, with gills and everything, can forget what Ferrari was in the 90's: a brand that had hemorrhaged money consistently during the whole decade.

[windwaves]

In my view the differences in power unit performance have a lot more to do with management decisions than with technical decisions.

That's why Domenicali has been sacked.

Montezemolo isn't anymore managing the F1 team like in the 70's, maybe is time for him to get hands dirty again.

Marmorini might have a two month deadline for sending FIA some changes to to the PU in the name of efficiency, before taking the big decission.

My 2 cents

agreed.

[windwaves]

Domenicali had to go, in the years he was incharge there were no controversies such as beryllium, 2003 michellin wide tyre or 2005 indy stand off. I strongly believe that if Todt was still incharge at Ferrari Brawns's double diffuser, flexi wings etc could not have happened. Domenicali just did not play the FIA and FOM to Ferrari's advantage.

yep, very important point here. LdM appointed MM in good part for this very reason.

[Aesto]

I decided to appoint a young manager in whom I have a great deal of confidence and someone from the Ferrari family, rather than going around the world looking for some mercenary.

Typical example of what is wrong with Montezemolo. He needs to stop running Ferrari like some kind of Italian family clan and join the 21st century.

And in response to the people defending him: What has he actually done for Ferrari's F1 team? The titles in the 70s were down to Enzo Ferrari and Lauda, LdM was just lucky to be there. Same in the early 2000s, success came because of Schumacher et al., Montezemolo was just signing the paychecks. Between and after that it was nothing but second and third places and if Montezemolo and his outdated management style stay, I don't see that changing any time soon, despite the gargantuan amount of money Ferrari is blowing on F1.

[mika vs michael]

The best Ferrari period was 2000-2004...and guess what...Team Principal was a French, driver a German, Technical Director a British and Designer a South African. Of course there were many other nationalities involved Nick Tombazis Greek, and of course many Italian engineers...So I presume that most of the tifosis prefer the mercenaries. I could never believe that I would ever call Jean Todt a mercenary.
LdM is part of the problem unfortunately and the fact that he will be more involved in the F1 Team it will make things worse.

[sennaf1god.94]

In my view the differences in power unit performance have a lot more to do with management decisions than with technical decisions.

That's why Domenicali has been sacked.

Montezemolo isn't anymore managing the F1 team like in the 70's, maybe is time for him to get hands dirty again.

Marmorini might have a two month deadline for sending FIA some changes to to the PU in the name of efficiency, before taking the big decission.

My 2 cents

agreed.

And apparently also Luca himself...

"I will help him, I will do like I did in the past: I will stay closer to Formula 1, I'll spend more time on it," di Montezemolo told Gazzetta dello Sport. "The first person at being not satisfied at the moment is me, but don't worry, I'm putting myself on the line: Mattiacci is the right choice, we'll get back to winning ways very soon.
"I've decided to go for a young manager I strongly believe in, and on a person from the Ferrari family, thus avoiding me going around the world looking for some mercenary. Let's look ahead: we all must roll up our sleeves in order to be competitive again."

[sennaf1god.94]

Same in the early 2000s, success came because of Schumacher et al., Montezemolo was just signing the paychecks.

Nope

In 1993, at the age of 47, Jean Todt’s 12 outstanding years with Peugeot Talbot Sport came to an end. He was recruited by Luca di Montezemolo, the new CEO of Scuderia Ferrari.

Luca was right to appoint Todt, the only one who turned Ferrari from a nightmare into a dream.

[Aesto]

Nope. In 1993, at the age of 47, Jean Todt’s 12 outstanding years with Peugeot Talbot Sport came to an end. He was recruited by Luca di Montezemolo, the new CEO of Scuderia Ferrari.

Luca was right to appoint Todt, the only one who turned Ferrari from a nightmare into a dream.

So because LdM brought in Todt, he gets credit for what Schumacher, Brawn and Byrne did? It's not like hiring Schumacher was some kind of strategic masterstroke by Todt, he was far and away the best driver at the time, any team principal would have welcomed him with open arms.

[zeph]

You see that some blame may lie with Marmorini but it looks suspiciously like again the upper management had some short-sightedness in the strategy game. And the blame for that deficit goes directly to Monte's desk as does the blame for the wrong road car policy. Ciro is right by saying that Monte did well for Ferrari 25 years ago. That is true. But past success is no excuse for continued failure and Monte did everything wrong he could since the end of the dream team period.

In my view there are plenty of reasons why Monte should be sacked and not his underlings. Sure, they are not good enough but the fact that they all fail miserably weights heavy on the shoulders of the man who selected them in the first place and makes all the important calls at Ferrari. As soon as there is another talent in view to lead Ferrari Monte should be given the boot.

Agreed. =D>