F1 | Ferrari, Mark Hughes traces Arrivabene's profile: "He managed the team through a culture of intimidation and fear"

Yesterday's professional adventure officially ended Maurice Arrivabene in Ferrari, whose place at the top of the Cavallino Sports Management was taken by Mattia Binotto. The journalist talking about the manager from Brescia Mark Hughes, in the columns of Motorsportmagazine.com, certainly did not sing his praises, highlighting negative aspects from a work and character point of view.

"He wasn't the right man and had less value than Binotto, who Ferrari would have lost if Arrivabene had remained – underlined Hughes -.  Nothing was planned, but it was an action decided by John Elkann, who became president a few months ago. Although some reports suggest that the decision to dismiss Arrivabene was due to CEO Camilleri. Arrivabene lacked the ability to lead and inspire the team. Some saw him as a leader, others as a bully. He also had a similar relationship with the media, approaching it in an offensive way and having few friends in that world. He covered his lack of understanding with aggressive responses, it seemed like he didn't understand what he was saying (…). Arrivabene was doing the wrong job and Marchionne had understood this after snatching him from Philip Morris, which is why he had planned the change".

Hughes also reported a background story featuring Arrivabene himself and a famous Italian technical illustrator: “During the Chinese Grand Prix weekend last year, Giorgio Piola photographed Sebastian Vettel's steering wheel. Piola then drew the steering wheel and wrote about the extra control (the famous third lever, ed.) that characterized him. The following day Arrivabene approached Piola and threatened him. The episode gave the measure of the man".

"While Arrivabene ran the racing team through a culture of intimidation and fear, Mattia Binotto had convinced Marchionne that removing fear could unleash much of the creative talent of the people within the team – added Hughes -. Marchionne followed the suggestion and applied the science of management. This is why Ferrari has become the most creative technical group on the grid in years. It wasn't the worst team among those in the lead because of the people working within it, but because of how it was conducted".