MARANELLO (Italy): Stefano Domenicali resigned as Ferrari’s Formula One team principal on Monday with the company’s North America president and chief executive Marco Mattiacci appointed as his replacement.
The Italian glamour team, the oldest and most successful in the sport, have made a poor start to the season with two fourth places for Spaniard Fernando Alonso the team’s best results in three races so far.
Ferrari have not won a driver’s world championship since Kimi Raikkonen in 2007, although they were constructors’ champions in 2008. At the most recent race in Bahrain, Alonso and his Finnish team-mate were ninth and 10th.
“It is time for a significant change,” Domenicali, who took over from FIA boss Jean Todt in 2008, said in a Ferrari statement announcing his resignation.
“There are particular moments in everyone’s professional life in which you have to have the courage to make difficult and very agonizing decisions.
“As chief, I take on the responsibility of the situation we are in. It’s a decision made with the desire to do something to shake things up and for the good of this group,” added the 48-year-old Italian.
Mattiacci will take overall charge of the Gestione Sportiva — the carmaker’s sporting activities including the Formula One team that has competed in every championship since 1950 — with immediate effect.
Domenicali, who has been with Ferrari for 23 years in various roles, replaced Todt as team principal when the Frenchman took on a more senior management role at the Maranello headquarters.
Todt presided over a golden era at Ferrari when Michael Schumacher won five titles in a row between 2000 and 2004.
Ferrari has not won a race since Alonso’s victory at the Spanish Grand Prix almost a year ago, the team’s worst run in nearly 20 years.
“I thank Stefano Domenicali, not only for his constant dedication and effort, but also for the great sense of responsibility he has shown, even today, in always putting the interests of Ferrari above all else,’’ Ferrari President Luca Di Montezemolo said.
“I hold Domenicali in esteem and I have watched him grow professionally over the 23 years we have worked together, I now wish him every success for the future.”