Domenicali quits as Ferrari F1 boss in major team shakeup

Nobody said that life in the Piranha Club was easy. The latest casualty is Ferrari Formula One team boss Stefano Domenicali, who has decided to resign from his position as Director of the Gestione Sportiva (sports management). The management shake-up reflects the lack of winning results at Ferrari, the oldest and most successful Formula One team.

Ferrari has failed to win a constructor’s championship since 2008, when Domenicali took the reins at Ferrari. The results for the first three races of 2014 were also disappointing for the team, as they failed to reach a podium finish. Sweeping new engine and chassis regulations were promulgated for the 2014 season. Driver Fernando Alonso had expressed his and the team’s dissatisfaction with their performance.

“There are special moments that come along in everyone’s professional life, when one needs courage to take difficult and very agonizing decisions,” said Domenicali. “It is time for a significant change. As the boss, I take responsibility, as I have always done, for our current situation. This decision has been taken with the aim of doing something to shake things up and for the good of this group of people that I feel very close to.” Domenicali has been with Ferrari for the past 23 years.

Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo commented: “I thank Stefano Domenicali, not only for his constant dedication and effort, but also for the great sense of responsibility he has shown, even today, in always putting the interests of Ferrari above all else.

Ferrari announced that, as from today, it has appointed Marco Mattiacci, current President and CEO of Ferrari North America, as the new head of the F1 team. The F1 rumor mill is speculating that the change paves the way for the return of Ross Brawn, who engineered Ferrari’s spectacular championship run from 1999 to 2004, with Michael Schumacher and Jean Todt, who is currently president of the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), the sport’s governing body.