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Arrivabene: Ferrari's 2018 problems beyond racing

Arrivabene: Ferrari's 2018 problems "beyond racing"

17-12-2018 11:51
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Nicolás Quarles van Ufford

Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene has revealed that the team's problems during the 2018 season went far beyond racing, as the untimely deaths of multiple people within the organization among other things shook things up massively.

The Italian team actually led both championships halfway through the season. For the first ten Grands Prix it really looked like Ferrari could push Mercedes all the way, with Sebastian Vettel winning many races up until the Belgian Grand Prix right after the summer break.

Then Mercedes came. After the Belgian Grand Prix, the German team dealt hammer blow after hammer blow, winning back-to-back races in Italy and Singapore, two races where Ferrari were the heavy favourites. Lewis Hamilton ran away with the title and never really looked back. 

Arrivabene did admit that there were several on-track problems, but the off-track antics have to be considered too when looking at Ferrari's collapse, he underlined.

“We had the incident involving our mechanic Cigarini, then our president, who wanted me in Ferrari, passed away, leaving a big gap," the Italian told Gazzetta dello Sport.

"Then on the eve of Austin we lost one of our engineers.

“So many things outside our control happened which went beyond racing. It is my wish that luck will help us a little more in the coming season.”