Ferrari team has decided to strengthen its quality control department after the recent engine problems encountered by the Scuderia at Malaysia and Japan Grand Prix.
Ferrari ran out of time to change the spark plug on Sebastian Vettel’s car after detecting a problem when he left the garage to take the start in the circuit of Suzuka, Japan, last weekend.
Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne has expressed some frustration at seeing something as insignificant as a spark plug have catastrophic consequences.
The Italian boss demanded his team to renew its commitment to improve a quality control system in the future. Speaking to the Itlian television, the CEO of Fiat Chrysler Group reacted on the recent fail suffered by the Ferrari team.
“It’s ridiculous that such a coin has an impact on a car that costs millions. We have to be more involved in the quality of the parts that come in F1,” Marchionne said.
“And we have certainly ignored it because over time because it has never been so important. We have recently, and this devastating impact, we will fix it.” Marchionne added.
The 65-year-old CEO believes in Ferrari to do its best ahead of the rest of the season’s race to pursue its top competitor Mercedes in the standings.
“The season is not lost, there’s still all to do. I won’t talk of bad luck, I don’t believe in it. The important thing is to not lose the confidence that has brought us so far.” Marchionne said.
“I’m delighted with what the team has done and I have tremendous confidence that in the next four races we will be able to close most of the Mercedes gap.” he added.
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton is currently F1 standings leaders, 59 points ahead of Vettel. However, Ferrari still has plenty of time to recover its F1 battle.
Kimi Raikonnen and Sebastian Vettel. (Source:www.skysports.com)
Kimi Raikonnen on the other hand, he has been in a superb form in the recent weeks, and if some people have the belief that Ferrari made the wrong decision by choosing Raikonnen alongside his teammate Vettel for next season, former F1 driver Jaxques Villeneuve disagrees with those people.
“Kimi had his share of bad luck this year, but at times he was faster than Vettel. It doesn’t seem to be worth paying for, and sometimes he achieves good qualifications and then he encounters a problem in the race, or sometimes the opposite.” Villeneuve said to Italian media.
