Ferrari Mailing List: F1: Domenicali Replaces Todt as Ferrari Team Principal

[Dennis Liu (bigheaddennis]

Fascinating!  I had definitely concluded that Todt had beaten Montezemolo in
boardroom politics - hence the re-signing of Massa.  When the Brawn-to-Honda
story was announced this morning, I thought that news underscored it - Brawn
was waiting to take over the Ferrari F1 team, but Todt didn't want to go, so
Brawn instead took Honda's offer.  But then this news comes out.
Domenicali?  Really?  Wow.  Maybe just to avoid embarrassment over losing
Brawn?  Timed to the announcement that Schumacher would be testing for
Ferrari this pre-season - telling the world that hey, we may have lost
Brawn, but we've still got Michael?

vty,

--Dennis


F1: Domenicali Replaces Todt as Ferrari Team Principal
Written by: Adam Cooper, RACER Magazine
Modena, Italy - 11/12/2007 

Stefano Domenicali has replaced Jean Todt as team principal of Scuderia
Ferrari by taking over the role of director of Gestione Sportiva, which is
what the company calls its racing boss.

Todt remains the overall head of Ferrari but from now on will only be seen
in the paddock when he feels the need to come to a race. Presumably the
double World Championship, achieved without Ross Brawn and Michael
Schumacher, has allowed him to walk away at the perfect moment.

The 42-year-old Domenicali is a long-term Ferrari man who graduated from the
role of team manager via the position of sporting director. He will take
over the job in January.

Ferrari's announcement was a quick reaction to the news from Honda that Ross
Brawn had become team principal.  Clearly the team wanted to make the point
that Brawn had not been kept out of a Ferrari management role by Todt
deciding to stay on.

In fact it seems that a year ago the team made a policy decision to promote
from within and focus on growing a group of established Italians who were
likely to be in it for the long haul. It could be that the Nigel Stepney
case has not encouraged the team to want to continue to have too many
foreigners into key positions.

It remains to be seen whether there ever really was a serious chance of
Brawn returning to the team, assuming that Domenicali was always going to
get the top job.

The restructuring sees erstwhile Technical Director Mario Almondo become
Operations Director, although his co-ordination role will apparently be
basically the same.

Aldo Costa becomes Technical Director, while Frenchman Gilles Simon is
Engine Director.