F1: 2019 thread

[Deschodt]

If there is one already I could not find it....

ARRIVABENE fired, Binotto replacing him at Ferrari. Apparently the team principal was not well liked in the press nor in his own team, being a bit of a bully... The idea being that less scared employees might produce more innovations... A bit late for this car/year, but probably a good move!

Mark Hugues:
"Maurizio Arrivabene’s dismissal from the role of Ferrari team principal was logical. He was not the right man for the job – and was of less value to the team than Mattia Binotto who may well have been lost to Ferrari if Arrivabene had stayed on as his boss.

What did Arrivabene do wrong? He lacked the ability to lead and inspire. What he saw as leadership, many of those around him took as bullying. He had a similar relationship with the media, deploying an outright offensive manner that gained him few friends there.

So we eventually arrived at the position in 2018 where the worst race team was running the best car

He covered up his lack of detailed understanding with dismissive and aggressive responses. He didn’t seem to even understand what it was he was not understanding. At first I took it as a language barrier, but in time I came to know that it wasn’t – and that he expressed himself in much the same way in his native tongue. He appreciated questions from those around him about as much as he did from the media.

He was an autocrat to those below him but without the inspirational qualities to compensate. He was a ‘yes sir, three bags full sir’ guy to those above him.

Arrivabene was in the wrong job – something that Sergio Marchionne had come to realise after having plucked him from Philip Morris.

The late chairman had planned the exact change that has just happened and had informed the board of it. Hence Elkann is only doing what Marchionne had planned (just as with the hiring of Charles Leclerc in place of Kimi Räikkönen), even though he wasn’t beholden to it after Marchionne’s sudden passing."

[legion]

1) I figured it would either be Arrivabene or Vettel who got the boot.

2) They had a strong car last year. While this won't change the car that shows up to the first race, it may make for some better improvements throughout the season and some better strategy calls during races if employees feel empowered to speak up.

Originally Posted by Deschodt

What did Arrivabene do wrong? He lacked the ability to lead and inspire. What he saw as leadership, many of those around him took as bullying. He had a similar relationship with the media, deploying an outright offensive manner that gained him few friends there.

...

He covered up his lack of detailed understanding with dismissive and aggressive responses. He didn’t seem to even understand what it was he was not understanding. At first I took it as a language barrier, but in time I came to know that it wasn’t – and that he expressed himself in much the same way in his native tongue. He appreciated questions from those around him about as much as he did from the media.

He was an autocrat to those below him but without the inspirational qualities to compensate. He was a ‘yes sir, three bags full sir’ guy to those above him.

This describes my boss in Atlanta to a T. I can tell you that everyone that worked for him was preoccupied with either avoiding or managing his bullying. Getting work done was like a tertiary concern and the quality of the work was a concern below that. Turns out the best strategy for avoiding his wrath was just not to do any work. I had no desire to persist in such a dysfunctional environment and started plotting my escape about one month into working for him.

[GH85Carrera]

Maurizio Arrivabene sounds like a made up name for a novel or James Bond movie about the Italians. He seemed overwhelmed for the task, and a great car was wasted on some bad race decisions. With Vettle making bonehead moves as well, they really had little choice.

Hopefully the new boss will do better. I am ready for F1 to start up.

[Deschodt]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

I am ready for F1 to start up.

Me too. Kimi in decent sauber, Leclerc in a Ferrari, hopefully Honey badger in an improved renault and Sainz in a better MacLaren, Honda power in the redbull (still hoping it blows up just to piss off Max and Helmut), and we get to see if Stroll was worth losing Ocon for... should be an interesting one (but I am under no illusions and Lewis will win the WC again)

[Won]

Thanks for starting the new thread!

This article on Autosport came out shortly before the Arrivabene announcement:

Ferrari's key culture deficit to Mercedes

Culture eats strategy for breakfast; a business mantra that came to mind when I heard Maurizio Arrivabene's tetchy reply of "that is your opinion..." when, in Abu Dhabi, the BBC's Andrew Benson put it to him that Ferrari had made too many mistakes in 2018 to beat Mercedes.

The 'culture' phrase is attributed to the late Peter Drucker, a leading management consultant.

It doesn't mean that strategy is unimportant, simply that you aren't going to get anywhere if your team doesn't have the right culture; including admitting mistakes.

Admitting you have a problem is usually the first step towards recovery.

Mercedes' huge achievement owes much, of course, to having the strong technical foundation that Honda and Ross Brawn built in Brackley. Yet major automotive companies have a poor track record in F1; big factories and large budgets seldom guarantee success.

Think Jaguar, or Toyota.

A winning culture depends on high-quality leadership, usually delivered by a boss with real authority.

One of the first signs Mercedes had learned a lot from their time in the sport was in separating the race team from the parent company. The other was the masterstroke in agreeing to sell shares to Toto Wolff and Niki Lauda.

As a 30% shareholder, Wolff is in the unique position of being the only active team principal with significant equity in the team he leads (Frank Williams is not considered 'active' because he no longer attends races).

This consolidates Wolff's authority, and makes for a very different situation to that at Ferrari, where Arrivabene was often overshadowed by the late Sergio Marchionne.

Wolff also has a perspective beyond F1, enabling both him and Lauda to draw upon experiences of creating successful companies.

Lauda has built and sold three airlines, Wolff's Nextmarch investment company backs a string of successful businesses, not to mention the HWA motorsport empire.

This background, glued together by a love and knowledge of the sport, has enabled the pair to form a strong partnership, and drive a culture that has more in common with an entrepreneur-led business than the squashed sub-division of an automotive giant.

In business management, the process by which you admit, analyse and rectify your mistakes has a name - it's called 'Continuous Improvement'.

When Mercedes' chief strategist James Vowles came on the radio to Lewis Hamilton and took responsibility for a pitwall debacle in the Austrian Grand Prix, it illustrated that approach. In the most public way, Vowles was being open, honest and accountable. He also had confidence the team would not punish him.

'Blame the problem, not the person' is one of the in-house sayings in Brackley, and Wolff has referred to the team's way of dealing with issues as 'tough love'.

You end up having difficult conversations at times, but nothing is left to fester.

Similarly, there is an emphasis on communication, from the trackside emails that flow to everyone back in Brackley and Brixworth, to the Monday afternoon 'town hall' meetings where senior staff debrief everyone after the races.

The positive culture is self-evident - from Hamilton's constant 'thank yous' to the factory, through to non-technical staff, such as the heads of communications, marketing and human resources teams collecting the constructors' trophy on the podium.

In this one-team approach, everyone is recognised as a contributor to success.

Ultimately it is openness that works for Mercedes. It's a powerful culture, powerful enough to help drive five consecutive titles, even when last season the competition sometimes produced a faster car.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

After a very enjoyable 3 yrs of doing stuff other than F1 I'm back in the game
Too many calls from too many teams, kept saying 'sorry no, not available, I'm building my house ' but the devil on my shoulder kept whispering 'go on, you're a sucker for a tough challenge, go on have a go see if you've still got it' On my 4th week now and I might just get away with it, again!

As for 2019 F1 news I'm going to make a few assumption's on the Ferrari news.

Simone Resta well respected ex-Ferrari Chief Designer left the team to be Technical Director at Sauber.

The move when announced struck me as a strategic move to strengthen/rebuild Sauber to put the team in a position to boost Ferrari's own car/team/personnel development rate. I'm also assuming Simone will be back to Maranello very soon to take over Mattio's old Technical Director position

Won's article is spot on, analogy I've used a few times when trying to describe the experience of being shot at and seeing people shot at a team like Ferrari or any other big F1 team when the shooting starts from the top down is....

Every single person in a F1 team is running, running as fast, sometimes even faster than their legs can go while either trying to stay in front or trying to catch up the competitors.

If someone trips over and is shot, everyone else in the team see's this and slow's down their pace just a bit in fear of being the next person to be shot, eventually after more shootings the running pace has slowed down a bit and any championship ambitions are gone.

If on the other when someone trips up, other are there to pick them up and dust them off then everyone will try and run as fast as they can knowing there will be someone to pick them up.

[rusnak]

Only Ferrari's weak management would let them get into a false logic of "who's more valuable, Arrivabene or Binotto, Binotto therefore, put him IN CHARGE OF THE TEAM".

The entire reasoning is stupid, naïve and primitive. It's like they think he's a good tech guy, therefore his Merlin like magical powers will make him able to fix their management problems next. Never mind the fact that he is not experienced at the politics of running an entire team, let alone doing battle with the FIA, nor the fact that now they are weaker technically since he will not be running the car design. Next, they'll compound their mistake with another mistake by firing him when the car loses a place or two in the rankings, letting Red Bull and Renault pass them up. This is an example of Ferrari being "too Italian" to win the world championship.

[astrochex]

Interesting article, Won. I remember when “continuous improvement” was the latest management mantra, say 20 years ago at my prior aerospace employer. It is good to see that your team is getting positive results from actual implementation.

Love the analogies, Captain, dark to be sure.

[astrochex]

An interesting take on the Ferrari. Perhaps not up to Captains and Wons tolerances, but cool nonetheless.

[Won]

That's cool! And the tolerances look just about right

This guy scratch built paper models of Red Bull F1 cars, got noticed by the team and did an internship there. Isn't that the ultimate dream? Who here didn't make paper/plastic/Lego models?

https://paulsf1.wordpress.com/about/curriculum-vitae/

[astrochex]

What a great story! That paper RB7 looks phenomenal.

As an F1 fan, I just see the teams as a whole. Any opportunity to learn about the individuals is really cool.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Very cool and Rob Marshal, Red Bulls chief designer is a top guy!

[rfuerst911sc]

Another positive step forward for Mick Schumacher , making him come up through the ranks/feeder systems vs. just giving it to him because of name will make him a better driver . I wish him the best .


https://www.yahoo.com/sports/ferrari-adds-schumacher-f1-junior-143219478.html

[URY914]

very interesting.....

https://sports.yahoo.com/true-cost-f1-2019-entry-180329082.html

[legion]

Somehow, I don't think the FIA charges brand new teams or teams that failed to score points $0 for the next season...

[Deschodt]

A good read:

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.how-i'll-remember-it-by-brendon-hartley.6ZehXRpFTCG7FGBHEuHwlL.html

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Originally Posted by Deschodt

A good read:

Thanks, good read and very obvious he's got broughtupsy

[astrochex]

Originally Posted by Captain Ahab Jr

Thanks, good read and very obvious he's got broughtupsy

That was a good read. I like Hartley and was disappointed to see him getting his walking papers.

What is “broughtupsy”?

[rfuerst911sc]

I see Sauber is changing its name to Alfa Romeo racing , my guess is there is $$$ driving the name change .

[Tervuren]

Originally Posted by rfuerst911sc

I see Sauber is changing its name to Alfa Romeo racing , my guess is there is $$$ driving the name change .

Sauber did some things such that they are not a company name that sponsors would be as happy to associate with.

New connections, new people, new name. Maybe it will work out better providing they don't cheat people again.