For the past decade, Ferrari has not been able to win a Championship. Red Bull on the other hand is currently dominating the sport. Christian Horner thinks that Ferrari’s main problem is their heritage and their completely Italian team.
During a recent interview, Christian Horner gave his opinion on Ferrari and what their main issue is.
“I think the biggest problem for Ferrari is that it’s a national team. It needs to get back to being a race team. It’s an Italian institution and there’s probably too many people at the top end. Everybody has an input and has a say.”
“From the outside looking in, one of our (Red Bull’s) strengths is that we move quickly, we make decisions and we stick to them. And if we make the wrong decision, we change the decision. I think, for Ferrari, the newspapers have such an influence on what happens there. So it’s a lot of pressure, being at Ferrari.”
Ferrari has been a part of F1 since the very beginning. Red Bull on the other hand has been in F1 only since 2005. While Ferrari has a long leadership line, Red Bull’s is pretty simple. Christian Horner is the only one who has a final say on matters regarding the team. Horner is also very involved in the operations of the team as he is the team principal.
Christian Horner highlights the ‘biggest problem’ with #Ferrari #F1 team
“I think the biggest problem for Ferrari is that it’s a national team. It needs to get back to being a race team.”https://t.co/iIuBhdaeU1
— PlanetF1 (@Planet_F1) November 10, 2023
In Ferrari, although Fred Vasseur is currently the team principal, there are a lot more people above him that he has to answer to. So the decision-making is not solely dependent on Vasseur. Even the Italian Media has some pull in the team. This gives Ferrari a lot less freedom to move ahead with developments.
Every engineer and mechanic Ferrari hires is Italian. The ability to speak in Italian is a must if anyone is applying for a job at Ferrari. This limits their candidates as a lot of top candidates cannot speak Italian. We have also seen the communication between the race engineers and drivers affect the team’s result in the race as the engineers are not able to deliver information to the drivers quickly and fluently in English.
Ferrari struggling once again with reliability after Brazil GP
Last season, Ferrari had pace in the car to win the Championship. However, this pace went down when the car started to face reliability issues. In order to make the car more reliable, Ferrari has to turn down the power of the engine. Hence, they were not able to challenge Red Bull anymore.
This season, the pace of the SF-23 was nowhere near Red Bull’s RB19. But still, Ferrari is struggling with reliability issues. During their last race in Brazil, Charles Leclerc had a positive qualifying on Friday that saw him 2nd on the grid for the race. However, during the formation lap, the car suffered a hydraulics failure that saw Leclerc spinning out of the race.
Even Carlos Sainz faced a few issues with the clutch during the race. However, he was able to manage and finish the race in a strong position ahead of both Mercedes. While Carlos has been more consistent this season, Charles has had a lot of bad luck.
A tough Sunday for us in Brazil 🇧🇷
But we’re looking forward to the last two weekends on the calendar 💪 pic.twitter.com/x2wbIaDXPu
— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) November 6, 2023
The Prancing Horses are currently 3rd in the WCC. They are currently chasing Mercedes who are only 20 points ahead. With only 2 races remaining, a few strong performances from Sainz and Leclerc could see Ferrari in 2nd place when the season ends.
However, 2024 will be another story. Ferrari will be hoping to take the challenge to Red Bull for the Championship. However, a couple of other teams will also be hoping to do the same. Do you think Ferrari has what it takes to challenge Red Bull for the Championship next season? Post your answers in the comment section below.