F1 | Ferrari, Arrivabene: “Divisions within the team? Only tactics that opponents use. The group always remained united"

Over the last few weeks there has been some talk of possible disagreements within Ferrari between the team principal, Maurizio Arrivabene, and the technical director, Mattia Binotto. Rumors that Arrivabene has repeatedly branded as fake news and trying to nip other allegations about possible divisions within the Scuderia in the bud.

According to the team principal of the Maranello team, on the contrary, the group always remained compact, which also helped to overcome the moments of difficulty encountered during the season, underlining once again how the rumors of possible disagreements within Ferrari are just tactics used to destabilize the Red team: “Those of the rumors of divisions within the team are generally tactics that the opponents use [to destabilize]. Then there are those who fall for these tactics and create cases,” Arrivabene said in an interview with Sky Sport.

“I believe that in every team there are discussions, don't you remember two years ago in Singapore when at a certain point Toto Wolff got angry with the team on Monday because the car was running on three wheels? The discussions take place at the moment in which they are a stimulus for everyone to move forward, these are things that happen in all teams. You work at Ferrari and certain things immediately become public and the moment they become public, they seem like mountains that become insurmountable" – added the manager from Brescia, who then wanted to underline once again the spirit shown by the team in believing in it until the end -. “But I repeat, I saw a team, here on the track, at home, everywhere, that believed in it and that pushed until the end. When I said 'let's go to the last match to play for the world championships', it wasn't just me saying it, it was the feeling I felt within the team. I would have liked to send a few more people to the podium and stand below and applaud them, because that's my role. I think it's a way to reward the kids. My place is below and applauding them."

One aspect of his work that Arrivabene has to deal with every day is criticism and he is aware of this. Working at Ferrari undoubtedly multiplies the attention and criticism, often exaggerated, but the Ferrari team principal knows that all this is part of the game: “It's a job done like this. The moment you work at Ferrari, everything multiplies tenfold. It's the role. If you interpret everything well you are very good, you did everything right. In other cases you did everything wrong. Sometimes, with the pressure in Ferrari, it's not easy to keep the bar straight. Having said that, I'm someone who doesn't give up, I'm someone who believes. It's not just the way I am, when you work at Ferrari it's a duty, you have to set an example. Then obviously everyone does their own thing, I would never claim to do better than the work that engineers do, who do a great job, much less what mechanics do. My job is to coordinate the group.” were Arrivabene's words.

Voices of a disunited group that were not particularly appreciated in Maranello, which underlined how this group's desire to win was fundamental, despite the difficulties encountered along the way: "It's not nice when maybe you hear about a disunited group, because if we look at the facts today, this year we won at very different moments of the season. It was won before Silverstone, it was won at Silverstone, it was won in Belgium, it was won later in the United States” – added Arrivabene.

“A team that doesn't want to win and isn't united stops at a certain point, but we have never stopped. True, we had some problems, I had to work a bit on psychology with the pilots, but fortunately they are human beings, they are not those superheroes we see in the films. Luckily they are human beings, because they have their strengths and weaknesses. We saw a Hamilton who hadn't started the season very well and he too had his moments of difficulty and criticism of him. Then things were reversed and then at a certain point everyone regrouped within the team, in the sense that we were already there before, even the driver overcame that moment of crisis, and at that moment there is no point in hiding behind the glass, certain developments on our part that should have come were missing. Then there will obviously be those who will say 'here, he's accusing the team!'. I don't accuse anyone, in the sense that I never point the finger at anyone in particular, you win and lose together. What I see, even though we made mistakes, we gave it our all, we put our soul into this championship."

“I don't give up, neither do the riders, nor do the guys both on the track and at home. Things can go one way or another, but we all commit ourselves, intellectually, manually but above all honestly, because we are aware of a fact, that if we want to win we must deserve it, because nobody helps us here, and therefore we must win . We are aware of this, it is difficult, but no one backs down. Promised,” concluded the Ferrari team principal, launching a new challenge to Mercedes to fight for the title in 2019.