Rumor Mattiacci to step down

Ferrari thanked him for his 15years of loyal service to the company when they removed him from the Team principal position - I read that as being a polite way of saying: "See Ya! - Don't let the door hit you on the arse on the way out!".


As for his Alonso comments:

Alonso has already stated that he had basically lost heart with Ferrari in 2013 and had pretty much made his mind up that he wanted out.

Mattiacci would have been aware/made aware of this, and he would have watched Alonso becoming more and more disenchanted with the Scuderia. As the Team principal, this would not have endeared Alonso to Mattiacci at all so his comments are not that much of a surprise. (How would you feel if you ran a business and one of your top guys basically said: "I don't want to be here any more!.........This place is going nowhere!......... I can do better working somewhere else!"? - You're hardly going to think he's a great guy are you?).

We only know what has been said publicly about this whole Ferrari/Alonso split, and it may well be that behind closed doors, Alonso has been far more obvious about his disappointment with Ferrari and his intentions to leave.

To be fair to Alonso, he's been very professional and still given his all in races, in a car that has been lacking to say the least, but yet again we have a prime example of Alonso making commitments to a team and then abandoning them because victories do not come easily (McLaren/Honda take note! - Whilst he's currently making statements about long term commitments to this new project, they are pretty much empty words! If it doesn't work out as he hopes then he'll jump ship straight away! (yet again!).

If he'd actually honoured his Ferrari contract fully then I'd have a lot more respect for him, even if it didn't result in a WDC or even race wins, but now he seems like a spoilt child, running away and not playing any more because he can't win!

At least Schuey didn't walk away because things weren't easy! - He stuck at it and made it work!


I digress, at the end of the day, I never felt that Mattiacci was the right man for the job in the first place with his lack of F1 experience but he's made some changes to the team that seem to be the right choices for the future, especially in the engineering departments.

Alonso wanted out long before he arrived and I don't think anyone could have changed his mind on that one, so Mattiacci cannot be blamed for that.

He helped get Vettel to Ferrari, mainly because out of all of those available, Vettel was the best candidate who would not be a major gamble (and Vettel is a four times World Champion who is eager to be a Ferrari driver! - Which is no bad thing PR wise as it helps maintain the whole mystique of drivers wanting to drive for the Scuderia).

I'm sure he would have preferred to have had Hamilton to replace Alonso but Hamilton was not available.

As things stand right now, Ferrari appear to be in a disorganised mess and appear to have reverted back to their bad old ways that hampered them throughout the 80's and 90's!

We can only hope that they learn the lessons of the past and sort themselves out quickly, otherwise we can look forward to another 21 years in the wilderness at least! (and we're already 7 years into it!)

 

I think that might be a bit harsh.

 

+1 he was at Ferrari for years not A year as with Mclaren. FA did all he could and left given the changes he was not comfortable with. As if anyone here has not left a job or situation themselves.

 

Alonso did better by Ferrari than Ferrari did by him.
I wonder how many front line drivers would have stayed as long.

 

+1!

 

At McLaren did he make a long term commitment and then bailout before his contract was up? - Yes or no?

At Ferrari, did he make a long term commitment and then bailout before his contract was up? - Yes or no?

Now he is talking about a long term commitment to a team yet again, but does history not show that when the going gets tough, Alonso buggers off?



Here's a hypothetical situation for you then:

Alonso signs for McLaren/Honda on a 5 year deal but 2years in, the car is not winning GP's and shows little prospects of improving any time soon.

Meanwhile, having won another couple of WDC's with Mercedes, Hamilton decides he's off to Ferrari and so Mercedes approach Alonso.

Do you honestly think Alonso would see out his McLaren/Honda contract, or do you think he'd bail out early to join Mercedes?

I know which one My money would be on!

Alonso's contracts aren't worth the paper they're written on!

Harsh? - Welcome to F1!

 

I agree with that . But it goes for everybody.

 

In F1 whose are?

 

The company who provide the paper for the F1 contracts to be written on? - Surely that contract must be worth the paper it's written on?

 

Maybe.
What about the company that supplies the disappearing ink?


Or as Sam Goldwyn said "oral contracts aren't worth the paper they're written on".

 

I don't know why you're singling out Alonso. Most of them have done the same thing.

I don't know why he stuck with Ferrari for as long as he did. Year after year of BS excuses from them. I think he deserves a medal.

 

Really, I don't understand your comments.

Racing drivers have very few years to make their mark and obtain some success.
You cannot blame an individual for leaving a team where he judges he has no chance to win, if he still feels he has the skill to do so. A talented driver has to be opportunistic as well, and look for the best car and the best team.

Signing a contract doesn't mean entering into holly orders, and most contracts will have get-out clauses. It is also often better to breach a contract than to stay and "go through the motions".

Also, it's not only drivers (Alonso in this case) who don't finish their contract. I believe some teams have also found ways to off-load drivers when it suited them.

 

It's important to remember too that Alonso only joined McLaren originally when Renault
couldn't decide if they'd continue, he was covering his bases.

And, even after the McLaren deal washed out, he returned to Renault once they were
on firmer footing.

Had Renault been more decisive about continuing, Alonso likely would have not jumped
over to McLaren.

BHW

 

+1

 

Exactly. Long-terms contract are done to have planning certainty but plans can change, both those of drivers and of teams. So if one wants to get out of the contract he has to make concessions (mostly money). It can not be in the interest of either party to keep a contract alife when the other simply does not want anymore, especially in a business that is very much result-oriented. It is much worse in football than in F1 so I can not see why blaming someone that ends its employment relationship before.