Ferrari need to fix ‘psychological issue’ and ‘culture of pressure’

Ferrari’s former press officer Alberto Antonini believes the Scuderia need a complete overhaul of culture to allow their staff to work without fear.

Antonini, who worked as Ferrari’s head press officer between 2015 and 2019, has offered his opinion on where he believes the Scuderia are struggling to match Mercedes and Red Bull despite having one of the quickest cars in Formula 1.

Heading into the summer break, Ferrari’s strategy calls in Hungary resulted in neither Carlos Sainz nor Charles Leclerc finishing on the podium despite starting from second and third places. This was in stark contrast to Red Bull, who managed to win the race from 10th on the grid with Max Verstappen.

It has led to widespread criticism of Ferrari, who are facing another title defeat to a rival for operational reasons rather than being outclassed by other machinery.

Antonini appeared on anepisode of the GoF1 Show, presented by host马太福音Marsh, in which he spoke about Sebastian Vettel’s time with the teamand how the four-time former World Champion “annoyed” the Scuderiadue to his presenting of methodologies he had brought with him from Red Bull.

He also spoke about the culture within the team, particularly in the strategy department that has proven to be the Italian squad’s prime weakness in recent years, and commented on how it was simply a case of ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’ within.

Antonini: Ferrari need to overcome a mental block

“If you speak about strategy, I would rather talk about tactics because I like to stress the point, the difference,” said Antonini.

“Tactics is what you probably apply on a smaller scale. Tactics is the battle, whereas strategy is the war. The process needs to be refined. My personal view, I’m not an expert at this, but I would just love to see it being made slimmer in a way. At the moment, what we have on the Ferrari wall and in the remote garage is probably too many people. So many people speaking their mind and nobody actually taking the final decision.

“It was a situation [in Hungary] that called for quick reaction and flexibility. My feeling is the team lacked this flexibility that was so badly needed.

“They have to overcome some sort of psychological issue, a block if you wish. With a car which is so fast, there is no point to just having your race copying Verstappen’s race. They should have tried going their own way and probably come out better.

“Whereas it is acceptable they didn’t get the win, because the car actually went down in terms of performance towards the end of the race, which needs to be investigated as well. What is not acceptable is they even failed to get a podium finish. It’s just bad to see Charles finish as low as sixth. This is unthinkable and that shouldn’t have happened.

“They need to rethink and refine and slim down the process of decision-making because they need more flexibility and more reactivity to the actual conditions you see.”

‘Competent’ people need to ‘feel secure’

Antonini opined that the people in the key positions at Ferrari are all very competent at what they do but are living in a culture of fear – meaning no bold or brave decision-making that could blow up in their faces.

He pointed out an example from the 2018 title fight between Vettel andLewis Hamiltonin which the Scuderia ignored the weather conditions that were right in front of them.

“Remember 2018 at Suzuka?” he said. “We went out on wets and it’s dry. That was a moment of embarrassment for me as well because I had to explain the reasons.

“It really puzzled me at the time and still baffles me, because I keep hearing from people in the Scuderia that there’s always some guy afterwards who comes up and says ‘I think we made the right decision, and if I was given the opportunity I would do that again’.

“Which honestly peeves me a little bit. It’s probably a matter of culture. I think all the people there are competent,and they have a good build-up.

“So they don’t need to be under pressure for whatever they do. They have to start to realise, and it has to be the case, that if you make a mistake, if you do something wrong, you don’t necessarily get slashed or you have to leave your job or get sacked – because it doesn’t happen with other teams.

“If you feel safe in the place you are working in, that will probably help you work better. I think it works in every company – it’s not a secret.”