Maurizio Arrivabene reckons Ferrari’s lack of Formula 1 title wins in recent times has instilled a ‘fear of losing’ which disrupts their game plan and it must see it off to take the fight to their opponents.
It has been 10 years since Ferrari last won the constructors’ championship in 2008 when Felipe Massa lost the title to Lewis Hamilton in an epic fight. Add another year, it has been 11 years since a Ferrari driver won a drivers’ championship.
In that period, Brawn GP has won once in 2009 followed by Red Bull Racing (2010-2013) four times and Mercedes (2014-2017) four times as well. Even though the fight for the drivers’ title is over for 2018, the constructors’ battle is still on.
It will be tough for the Italian manufacturer to take it away from Mercedes though as the German manufacturer holds a 55 points advantage with two races to go. The lack of title wins is what Arrivabene thinks is one of the reasons for Ferrari’s failure.
“The habit of winning, for them [Mercedes] to hit a double is the normality, for us an event,” said Arrivabene to the press including Italy’s Gazzetta Dello Sport during Ferrari Mondiali event. “We must shake off the fear of winning.”
The Italian feels Ferrari were able to extract more it could do in 2017 but for the mistakes done by both the driver and the team which hampered their chances. On Vettel, Arrivabene feels the loss at Monza was hard to digest for him.
“If Raikkonen is enough to speak clearly, Vettel should be embraced,” he said. “He must feel love. The blow to Monza where he absolutely wanted to win was hard to reabsorb, it took a bit ‘of time.
“And the calendar with the series races in Singapore, Sochi and Suzuka, with slow stretches where we were inferior to rivals, did not help us.” The German has faced hard time especially from the media in Italy.
The issues on track has resulted in speculations of rift within the team between Arrivabene and Mattia Binotto – with the word that only one will remain. The Italian has shot down those rumours as ‘fake news’. Although he revealed that there will be acquisitions.
“Once and for all, certain things that have come out [in the media about a bad relationship between the two] are fake news, teased artfully to destabilize us [Ferrari]. And that I refuse even to comment
“I’ve never talked about goodbyes and getting there! We will make acquisitions in areas where there is need without haste.” Ferrari will have at least one new member with Charles Leclerc coming in to replace Kimi Raikkonen.
