Ferrari President Sergio Marchionne has said it would be a tragedy if the team goes ten years without winning a Formula One world title but he is happy with the team’s progress.
Ferrari last won a constructors world championship back in 2008 but Marchionne believes the positive results in 2015 have helped bring credibility back to the Ferrari brand after years of struggles and discontent. Speaking to Gazzetta Dello Sport, Marchionne reiterated the need for Ferrari to put together a string of race victories
“If we were to string together victories in F1 then it would improve our brand. I was speaking with one of our car dealerships and we agreed that the results of 2015 helped bring back credibility to the brand. If we were to somehow fail to win a title over a 10-year span it would be a tragedy.”
Since becoming Ferrari president in 2014 Marchionne has been instrumental in improving Ferrari both on and off the track but he admitted when he took over the team wasn’t competitive
“The first month. When I went to see where we stood in the overall scheme of F1 I realised that we weren’t competitive.”
Not looking to take any of the credit for the teams race performance Marchionne was quick to praise the job Maurizio Arrivabene has done in his short time as team principle.
“We won because we brought focus back to the team and began to do the things that are really important. Maurizio Arrivabene’s arrival helped a lot.”
From the outside Ferrari seem to have turned a corner, they look much more like the team of the late 90’s and early 2000’s when they were taking the sport by storm. If they can take the fight to Mercedes this season the fans could be in for a treat.
