Ferrari team principal Marco Mattiacci has demanded no one in his team shuts down mentally during Formula One’s summer break.
Regulations require all teams to close their factories for two weeks during which time no work is undertaken on the cars.
But Mattiacci, still a rookie in terms of leadership, after only taking on his role in April, has called on all within the team to continue thinking as to how Ferrari can finally become winners again.
Fernando Alonso came close in Hungary on Sunday when he finished as runner-up to Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, the Spaniard’s best result for 10 months. But it is now 25 grands prix since the Maranello marque last savoured victory champagne, one of the worst droughts in the team’s illustrious history.
As far as Mattiacci is concerned, the work must be non-stop to get Ferrari back to the front.
He said: “We are not stopping thinking about how to make progress, there is no shut-down. We are about 1.2 seconds behind the leaders, which means months or even years of work, so we cannot allow ourselves to shut down mentally.”
“That’s why we need to think carefully about this second place because we need to still be aware there’s a huge amount of work to be done. It was motivating, but the team has to understand the meaning of this second place and that it doesn’t distract us from our trajectory. We got the best out of the race, but we are not here to fight for second place.”
Saturday’s qualifying session made it abundantly clear there are still problems inside Ferrari given the complete hash made by the team over Kimi Raikkonen’s running.
Three times the 2007 world champion asked whether he should put in another quick lap to guarantee his passage into the second session, and three times he was told no, only to get knocked out by Marussia’s Jules Bianchi.
It led to Raikkonen, who finished sixth, calling on the team to cure a “weaknesses in the system”.
Mattiacci said: “We have identified the weaknesses and the strengths of the team. In Budapest, our worst (on Saturday) and our best (second place) is not going to change our idea of where we have to go.
“Yes, Kimi is correct in asking the team to be vigilant about making decisions, but it’s a team decision.
“I’m happy Kimi’s back, he had a fantastic race, and Fernando had a fantastic race. But we should be extremely careful to apply the right importance to this second and sixth places because there is still a big gap to the leaders.”
