Ferrari Chairman Sergio Marchionne admits the Scuderia learnt their lessons “the painful way” in 2017 after seeing hopes of a championship challenge dashed by a series of problems and moments after the summer break.
Lead driver Sebastian Vettel went into the final nine races with a 14-point lead over Lewis Hamilton, but poor qualifying in the rain at Monza, a start crash in the rain of Singapore and engine issues in Malaysia and Japan turned that all around as the Mercedes driver would be 59 points clear after Suzuka, eventually wrapping up the title two races later in Mexico.
Looking back on the causes for those season-defining moments, Marchionne admits though the timing and repercussions of them occurring was tough, it highlighted the areas that needed attention to be better next year.
“I don’t believe in bad luck. Ultimately, it’s a reflection of the way in which we manage these businesses,” the Canadian-Italian claimed. “In the second half of the season, it was a combination of technical issues and driver error or driver misjudgement.
“I think we’ve learned a lot. I think it’s a painful way of learning it. I think the second half revealed some structural weaknesses in the manner which we are managing this business, which are going to get rectified and hopefully 2018 will be a much better season.”
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Marchionne also insisted this season has been a great success for Ferrari when considering the progress made over the last 12 months even if there was the disappointment at not sustaining a title challenge.
“If I’d asked anybody this time last year how well we would have done in 2017, I couldn’t have gotten a buyer for the idea that we would be that far advanced in the first half of the season,” he said. “So we have done well given our starting point but we were unable to finish the task.
“It’s a 2018 objective now. We regret not having done better, but the car is there. It is in my view probably the best car on the track today.”
