Maurizio Arrivabene interview on Marchionne, Binotto, Leclerc and Ferrari's difficult period in F1

07/26/2024 06:07 AM

His Ferrari was the last to fight for the title, with Sebastian Vettel leading the championship at Monza in 2017. Maurizio Arrivabene, former team principal of the Scuderia, former CEO of Juventus, with a long career at Philip Morris. Which of these three experiences do you feel most connected to?
“Each of these was important, nothing was given to me and I earned everything with hard work. I come from a very normal family. After a break post-Juventus, I am now working in digital marketing with a former Philip Morris friend and a very talented colleague. I relive the same spirit as when I was in Lausanne, the pride of being Italian and bringing ideas around the world. In Switzerland, I met Marchionne, and I told him I wanted to do something for my country.”

What was it like working with Sergio Marchionne?
“A military pilot described taking off from an aircraft carrier as ‘making love and hitting a wall at 150 mph, all at once.’ It was like that, strong emotions. But as the years go by, you realize you were alongside a great man. He had a very tough character but taught me and left me a lot.”

What do you mean by “very tough”?
“He demanded a lot from himself and others. It was normal to receive calls at 2 or 4 in the morning; maybe he was in the USA, but it didn't matter much to me as I was used to sleeping little. I learned to understand him over time, he truly made decisions. Today, I see many high-level managers who have difficulty choosing and do not take risks. This way, they avoid deciding by delegating to superiors just to keep their position. At Philip Morris, we were taught to take risks, to seek new paths; if you made a mistake, you had to take responsibility: in Ferrari, I always did.”

In what way?
“A leader has to show their face, I always went in front of the cameras. It makes me laugh when I hear concepts like ‘we put people at the center of the company’: it means letting an elite command and delegating the rest to the HR department. I sent engineers and mechanics, the ‘invisible’ people, to the podium; I regret not being able to continue. At Juve, I wanted to know all levels, with small group meetings: through dialogue, you discover interests and human potential; someone might work better in one area than another.”

Does this apply to drivers too? Leclerc is not having a happy moment.
“Drivers have ups and downs. I believed in Charles from the first day: before being included in the Academy, he came to the office and impressed me. He did not lower his gaze, he looked me straight in the eyes. From that meeting, I was convinced to take him. An old F1 master told me that a champion is recognized by how they look at you. He surprised me again when, shortly after his father’s death, he got on the team flight for the F2 race. I asked him, ‘Charles, what are you doing here?’ And he said, ‘There’s a race, I want to win it for my father.’ And he won.”

Is it just a temporary crisis?
“No crisis, but a moment of discouragement. He needs to be stimulated and understood. He needs people around him who know how to bring out the best in him. If someone has talent, they don't lose it suddenly.”

And Sainz?
“I know him little, but I had spoken with his father, who always believed in him. There are parents who help, like him, and others who create problems.”

For example?
“Often, during youth games, and it happens everywhere, you see several parents yelling at the opponents. There were campers outside the Juve center in Vinovo, with families living there who had left work to follow their children, convinced they were certain talents. It’s really uneducative, lacking smiles and carefree moments. In my days, scouts went around parish or more secular ‘little fields’; it was a happier football. If you were bad, you were not blamed, you went to the fields by bike, teams were formed by choosing alternately mixing the strong with the less strong, but once choices were made, everyone became a team. Now, from a young age, everything has become hyper-professional, with parents making great efforts to ‘drop off’ their children at training: it would be better to have one more pizza with the kids and one less training.”

Is it harder to work at Ferrari or Juve?
“Let me clarify my experience at Ferrari. No one fired me; otherwise, I wouldn’t have gone to Juve afterward. I had a four-year contract, and it was not renewed; we did not find an agreement. I was not only the team principal but also the managing director, with delegations given by Marchionne; Ferrari had just been listed, and the Scuderia had to be the flagship.”

Do you miss F1?
“A little, yes. I watch the races and think, ‘I would have done this.’ Fans still stop me on the street and many thank me, which pleases me the most. They call me ‘engineer,’ even though I am not. To be a team principal, you must be a leader, able to bring together different skills and personalities. Because in the end, the team principal counts very little in executing a GP; if one man chose everything, we would see comedy on Sundays.”

There was talk of tensions between you and Mattia Binotto. Did that pair not work?
“I don’t think so; this story was fueled from inside or outside; each of us had our role. But a well-made pair was Marchionne-Arrivabene.”

Ferrari has changed a lot in recent years, but at each step, there is talk of rebuilding, reorganizing, taking time. Why?
“Ferrari is everyone’s dream. Sometimes the pressure inside doesn’t give you time; everything happens so fast that you can’t complete a project naturally. In 2015, just arrived, we won three races. The following year, we were very busy developing the 2017 car; we finished third in the constructors and read about ‘zero titles.’ Marchionne defended the team, understanding we were in a transition phase. And indeed, the results came; we were in the fight for the championship in 2017 and 2018.”

Is Hamilton the right choice?
“Lewis can help Charles grow; a driver's first opponent is his teammate. But what matters more is the car he will have, and the only phenomenon is Verstappen. But even he cannot lower lap times alone by 2-3 tenths as I hear.”

Is Ecclestone’s F1 better than Domenicali’s?
“Impossible to compare two different worlds. Today’s F1 owes a lot to Bernie. There is no future without a solid past; Stefano is an excellent manager and was the only one to win a title with Ferrari. Today’s F1 is a global show, able to compete with entertainment and video games. I said it years ago, and they made fun of me.”

What do you think of John Elkann and Fred Vasseur’s Ferrari?
“I do not judge others’ work. If I had to decide, I would focus on two fronts: stability and team spirit. Those who feel protected work better; a united group can do miracles. When we won the first GP in Malaysia with Vettel, in 2015, no one could believe it, starting with me.”

Flavio Briatore is back; will we see you in F1 again?
“For now, I am happy with what I do with my company. I have lived many beautiful emotions and do not love the spotlight. I miss the people, yes. The strongest emotion was sending chief mechanic Modesto Menabue to the podium in Sepang; I miss the adrenaline of those moments. When you achieve a good result, you are happy to see the boys happy.”

What was the strongest sports emotion you experienced in your career?
“The Ferrari one-two in Hungary in 2017; we knew from the first laps about Sebastian Vettel’s steering problems. It required cold blood; I was going back and forth from the wall to the box to give security to the guys. Even if everyone’s legs were shaking, including mine. I called Kimi Raikkonen on the radio, asking him to protect Sebastian. Kimi did a masterpiece; those 70 laps seemed never-ending. He could have tried to win but put himself at the service of the team. We went into battle, from the first to the last, to give everything: this is the attitude I like. And at the end of the race, few celebrations: everything returned to normal, and everyone went back to work. In a world of people wanting to be special, to be really special, you have to be normal.”

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