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Ecclestone blames lack of structure for Ferrari failings

12:30, 30 Sep 2018

byJake Williams-Smith

Bernie Ecclestone believes that a lack of structure in place at Ferrari is the reason they are continuing to underperform. This season, Ferrari has arguably the fastest car on the grid however they are behind in both the driver's and constructor standings.

Despite all of the tools in place to finally win another championship, the Ferrari team seem to be floundering this season having dropped behind Mercedes since the summer break.

Ecclestone says that the team needs to go back to what made them so successful in the Michael Schumacher era and prevent the team from operating in a manner which is "too Italian".

"It's too Italian. I said to somebody the other day it's back to the old days," Ecclestone told ESPN.

"We got Todt to go there and look after things a little bit, so it wasn't Italian too much, and Michael was running the team. So it was all a bit different. I think they're missing that sort of a set-up now.

"Ferrari have got a completely different way of going on to Mercedes, haven't they?

"Mercedes has got a team that's pure, all they do is racing, it's nothing to do with the manufacturer.

"Ferrari is looking after their car production side of things, gearing that more or less to their Formula 1 performances. So it's run in a different way."