Ferrari's Maurizio Arrivabene: “My biggest challenge”

Melbourne, 13 March – This afternoon at the Albert Park circuit, Maurizio Arrivabene took part in his first ever FIA Press Conference, when he joined five of his peers on the panel. One of the first questions asked to the Gestione Sportiva Managing Director and Scuderia Ferrari Team Principal, one of concerned the many changes that have occurred in Ferrari since the end of last season: “ I don’t want to talk about the past. We made changes, but I would like to thank the people that were there before.

Thinking about the future and the actual situation, I was working a lot with the guys, as I said many, many times, to put them together for a common goal and to work concentrated, with feet on the ground, with the same objective. If we lose, we lose together and if we are going to win we are going to win together. That’s my mantra. This is what I said to the team and I saw them calm, committed and motivated. That’s important for me.”

Approaching technical matters is the biggest challenge for Maurizio: “You have to know a lot about that, you have to be curious, you have to go around the factory asking questions, meeting people but especially listening to the engineers, learning from them, because you know the engineers they are talking a very special language, they are able to use 1,000 words to tell you what normally they are going to say in 10 words. So you have to extrapolate and to summarise and to make it simple sometimes”.

About Manor, Maurizio explained the reasons behind the case: “They got the licence to take part on the championship quite late, so we are working together with the best effort to make sure these guys can run as soon as possible. it’s not only a problem about the software. With the engine, even last year’s engine, they are quite complicated to set up. We have a list of things to do but we are going through the list and we are really pushing very hard altogether to make sure that these guys, they will be able to run”.

Asked about his expectations afterseen Ferrari running second only to Mercedes: “If Claire (Williams) and Toto (Wolff), they give order to the team to stop somehow Sunday I think we will appreciate that! They don’t do it for sure. We closed the season last year in the fourth position. To think about the first you have to overhaul the guys that are nearby you, first, that is Claire, then there is the Red Bull, and afterwards, if you are able to go there, and I think these guys they are fighting to make sure we are not going there, then the other programme is Mercedes. We need to go step by step and try to be realistic and to do all our best to get nearby the guys of Toto as soon as possible. But it is not easy, of course.”

About cost control options his point of view is very simple: “We are all working together to try to somehow solve the situation but it’s also important to remember that we are talking about Formula One that is considered the pinnacle of motor sport competition. So we need to keep up that concept, to work in a way that will enhance the show. I’ve said many many times to take Formula One closer to the people but I think the group is working very well in this direction. It’s not an easy compromise because somehow you have to work on saving certain costs but on the other hand, you want to preserve the development, in some words I want to say that if you want to play in the Premier League, you have to prepare to do so, otherwise you play in another championship. If you look at football, they have a kind of financial fair play; this is acceptable but they are not transforming the Champions League into the Europa League”.

Scuderia Ferrari