Vettel has learned to be less emotive, says Marchionne

2018 F1 season

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Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne expects to see a “less emotive” Sebastian Vettel next year.

Vettel drew criticism during 2017 for some of his behaviour including his swerve into Lewis Hamilton during a Safety Car period at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix which earned him a stop-go penalty.

At the team’s base yesterday Marchionne said his driver had drawn lessons from the season. “Sebastian Vettel is a guy who studies a lot, studies himself and is committed, therefore, I think that we will see less of his emotive side. I think he has learned enough.”

2017 F1 driver rankings #3: Vettel
“Plus, there were plenty of opportunities for him to get annoyed, as he’s had a couple of rather difficult seasons, this year and the previous one.”

He also gave a vote of confidence to Kimi Raikkonen, who failed to score any of the team’s five wins this season.

“I believe he is really great, truly talented and I have never doubted his abilities,” said Marchionne. “I tell you, he’s a really top guy, otherwise he wouldn’t have taken pole at a track like Monaco.”

Marchionne praised the progress his team made after their win-less 2016 campaign but admitted the second half of this year had been difficult.

“Given where we started from last year, this season we have taken giant strides forward. Having said that, the second half of 2017 was character building.”

Marchionne believes the progress they made vindicated the changes he made to the team’s structure. “From back in August of last year, when we overhauled the organisation, I totally believed that these guys, with Maurizio Arrivabene as team principal and Mattia Binotto heading up the technical side, would be capable of doing something amazing.”

“We really believed we could do much more: but in 2017, we were unable to reach our objectives. That has also resulted in some changes to the organisation of the Gestione Sportiva. We can already see significant signs of change when it comes to the team’s production capacity.”

“The important thing is to start 2018 with all this expertise and experience and to manage this organisation. I have no doubt that we will be competitive.”

2017 F1 season

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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23 comments on “Vettel has learned to be less emotive, says Marchionne”

  1. Looking forward to this. Vettel + the Ferrari seem to be the ones best placed to take the fight to Mercedes.
    Of course, if Renault can unlock added performance and reliability to let Red Bull join the fray, then the more the merrier.

    Also, after a long while comes some comments from Marchionne that don’t annoy me!

    1. If Renault improve their engines and McLaren keep up their good chassis work up then they’d likely join the fray too.

    2. Sure enough, a Vettel with a clear head would have not made a mess at those few critical moments. We can only hope to see an even more intense and long fight for next year’s title @phylyp, especially if indeed Red Bull (with the better engine) and maybe even McLaren and the Renault team join in at the front at times @wildfire15

  2. Why is Marchionne micro managing the F1 team? I think he’s a clever business guy but think about the number of line managers he has by-passed just making this simple statement. He should just do what he does best – stand in the shadows, speaking quietly and carry a big stick. What does Maurizio Arrivabene do now, make the coffee?

    1. He’s President and CEO of Ferrari, I’m not a big fan of him but really I think it is his duty to give objectives and draw conclusions. Let’s be honest, this year Ferrari and Vettel screwed a potential drivers championship, he’s showing a positive attitude towards next year instead of getting angry at this year’s mistakes.

      1. @m-bagattini,
        He’s the Chairman of CNH Industrial, the CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. He doesn’t carry just a big stick, he carries multiple large sticks.

        I agree with @baron on this one, he’s too large a figure to voice opinions on smaller matters this often.

        1. I really enjoy hearing from Marchionne. It’s added an additional interesting voice to the sport. He’s a very clever man and nothing he says he says lightly. I’m not a Ferrari fan but I do want to see them back to their winning ways, and I think this guy is the right material to make that happen. He has the experience to see which personnel are right for the team and which are not. With his wealth of experience, it would be ridiculous for him not to be involved as much as he is, considering the team hasn’t won a championship in a decade.

          1. @baron, @m-bagattini, @praxis

            @keith, do I really need to do this? Shouldn’t be automatic for replies?

          2. Apologies, @keith … meant for @keithcollantine.

          3. Hi @shimks. No, you do not have to ‘tag’ a poster, but if the poster is ‘taggable’ (posting name in blue with “(@)” next to the name) and you tag it accordingly, an email will be generated to that person. This means that the person you are replying to is certain to see your reply. It is pointless to ‘tag’ people who are not registered to the site (name in black no @) because no email will be generated. Posters who are not registered on this site will have to trawl through the replies to see if anyone has answered, and on a busy day, that is a tall order. Of course, you can just reply and don’t need an answer, but to stimulate a discussion, it is a useful feature.

            I wonder why people don’t bother to register to F1F? It only brings benefits and promotes logical flow through discussions. Of course, one reason may be that unregistered posters can post with a multiple of user names for mischief or their own amusement, and with the advent of VPN’s these are harder to track down than they used to be.

            I hope this makes sense to you!

            Whilst I agree with your comments re: Marchionne, in general, it is not a great tactic to micro-manage over the heads of your line management which can only lead to de-motivation in the management team. I have been a victim of this many times in business and it is soul destroying..

          4. @baron Many thanks for the explanation regarding tagging!

            I hear you regarding the demotivation. But I think when the team has been striving unsuccessfully for another championship for so many years, it should be understood that the trust of upper management is yet to be earned. If possible, it should not be taken personally, but actually welcomed as an added asset. Of course, that depends entirely on the way upper management are managing things.

    2. @baron

      Why is Marchionne micro managing the F1 team? I think he’s a clever business guy

      I think you asked the question and you gave the answer ! Ferrari road car business as well as its stock value are directly linked to what the team is doing on the track. In the last decade, Ferrari’s net income is insanely increasing and beating record after record despite the fact that they didn’t increase the production numbers and the F1 team has not one a single championship.
      Marchionne intends to increase the road car production number to 10,000 car a year and for this purpose he is planning to add some models to the current pool ( a SUV and a mini Ferrari à la Dino). Imagine after all the failures of the last decade Ferrari finally wins the championship ! That will be insane for the tifosi especially those who can afford buying a 200,000$ Ferrari with the WDC badge on it.

      1. @shimks,
        About comment replies, notifications and tagging, there’s a ton more that can be done on a wordpress site like this. Unfortunately what we have is what we have.

  3. I’m not sure this is true. Mexico to me proved otherwise. All great champions are flawed in some way which coincidentally is what makes them tick. Vettel is Vettel- he has a bad temper and whether he can ultimately change his own makeup is highly questionable.

    1. I agree, this is his DNA. Talented, but not good in traffic and tends to loose his mind then. No problem at all if you give him the winning car, though..

      1. @mayrton “Vettel bad in traffic” is one of those most ridiculous myths that continues to exist purely by those who have the most selective memory in F1, probably the same men who still continue to pretend Vettel can’t overtake. I mean his move on Bottas in Austin proves both wrong right away.

        1. @flatsix he is not bad in traffic, I said he’s not good. I mean compared to others.. His titles measured him only to Webber and he almost always started from the front row. So he is incredibly fast, but not necessarily a good racer. I hope he will prove me wrong in the future

  4. Lies lies lies. With the FIA letting Seb off the hook without proper penalty, I doubt he’s learned anything. Mexico showed Seb hitting Lewis on purpose AGAIN. Seb is such a poor loser and incapable of fighting and passing cleanly on track. Lewis passed Seb in Spain and USA without taking each othet out.

    1. Well someone is clearly a Lewis fan…

    2. “Vettel hitting Hamilton on purpose in Mexico”

      Well, good to see Hamboy fans being just as delusional as their hero.

  5. We have a saying in Marathi which translates to: you can paint a crow white but it will still remain a crow and not turn into a swan/heron. Whether it was driving for Red bull or Limping horses this person hasn’t changed nor will he in future.

  6. The sad thing is both Vettel and Alonso always looked bigger than the team at Ferrari , despite their supposed character flaws, which arnt actually flaws for racing drivers, unless everyone want to be like Alain Prost (who still got himself sacked from ferrari for criticising them)
    Seb’s flaw this season was not thinking of the long game for the points. I’m not sure that kind of driver would go down well with everyone though would it? Drivers are managed too much as it is.

    Anyone offended by Seb’s so-called behaviour, watch some James Hunt documentaries. Wasted his talent doing things his way and enjoying himself.
    An era where a driver obviously got away with not caring less what others thought. Who from this generation will go down as real legends? We call them crybabies, naughty boys and good boys, for chr#sts sake.

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