Pat Fry is the next major Ferrari name set to depart.
Amid a tumultuous time for the fabled Maranello marque, 2014 has already seen a host of major names including Stefano Domenicali, Luca Marmorini, Luca di Montezemolo, Marco Mattiacci, Fernando Alonso and Andrea Stella all leave. Reports suggest that as Ferrari faltered so badly at the start of the new turbo V6 era, chief designer Nikolas Tombazis has become the next major scalp.
And Italian reports now suggest that, ahead of former Mercedes chief Bob Bell’s apparent arrival, the highly-rated British engineer Pat Fry is also leaving. The reports, also mentioned by Spain’s El Mundo Deportivo, said that while the Greek Tombazis and former McLaren engineer Fry have not yet been officially ousted, they have been sent “on vacation”. “As this is the critical period in the development of the car for next season,” the report surmised, “there is no doubt they will be made redundant”.
Alongside the leader of the 2015 car project, James Allison, it means the leading technical protagonists at Ferrari in 2015 will be Bell and the newly-promoted Simone Resta. The new team boss, meanwhile, is the former Marlboro branding executive Maurizio Arrivabene, who this week has given one of his first interviews to the Ferrari media insider Leo Turrini.
He told Turrini’s Quotidiano blog: “When people ask me when things will change on the track, I reply that I do not have a magic wand. “In 2015 it would be enough to win a couple of races — one with Vettel, one with Raikkonen. “Seb is beginning to understand what Ferrari is. Kimi knows already and, incidentally, Kimi has the advantage of being a normal guy in a world – formula one – where many, but fortunately not Vettel, are quick to lose touch with reality,” Arrivabene added. “None of us are here to regret the past. We are all here to build the future. “I have no doubts about our president (Sergio) Marchionne’s dedication to our battle. You’ll see with time the concerns of those who do not know him will vanish,” he predicted.
Arrivabene also spoke more broadly about the state of today’s F1, saying: “At the political level, Ferrari asks not what is right for our company, but what is right for anyone who loves the sport. “Whoever runs the racing world has to realise there is an audience to regain. I’m not interested in speeches about Rolex, I want a formula one that is as popular as the Olympics and the World Cup. “It once was so, and we have to go back to those levels,” he insisted.
