Ferrari admit they’ve a battle on their hands ahead of the 2015 season as work on this year’s car was started late compared to their rivals.
The unnamed car, which is due to be launched on January 30th, is behind schedule, but Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne is confident the change in engine rules will allow them to catch up.
“We’re starting the season a bit late because the design of the new car was started late,” said the Italian at the Automotive News World Congress in Detroit on Wednesday.
“But we don’t have to freeze the engine by the first race, so it will be a very interesting season. I think the car will get better as we go through the year.”
The team suffered its first winless season since 1993 last year, putting extra pressure on the manufacturer to do better. As a result, a major restructure of the business took place and Marchionne is confident it will bring good things.
“We have a new guy, a team principal, who has been involved in racing a long part of his professional life – Maurizio Arrivabene. And he’s busy now. We’ve got a technical guy, Allison, who’s taking over the technical side of the business. So we’ve got the team,” he said.
“It was time for a change. I think Luca has done a great job of leading that business for 23 years, but we hadn’t won an F1 championship since 2008. We had a disaster of a season in 2014, and I think organisations tend to get lazy, so it was time to bring about some change.
“On the road car side [business] is doing tremendously well, but at the heart of the success of Ferrari is what it does on the Formula One track. And if it doesn’t get that right, if it doesn’t fight properly, then I think it will ultimately impact on brand – so we had to intervene.”
