The internal curse holding Ferrari back

Ferrari should have won in Singapore. It could have won in Malaysia. It may well have won in Japan. But it didn't.

Instead, it heads to this weekend's United States Grand Prix 145 points adrift of Mercedes and its dreams of winning a first Formula 1 constructors' championship since 2008 are in tatters. Its hopes in the drivers' championship look just as bleak. Sebastian Vettel trails Lewis Hamilton by 59 points with 100 still available.

Both titles can be wrapped up by Mercedes and Hamilton respectively at Austin. Having looked so promising, Ferrari's wait for success looks set to go on. But will it ever end?

It's clear something needs to change at Ferrari and that something is the management. President Sergio Marchionne has picked up where his predecessors left off by heaping pressure on his employees, criticising them in public and reinforcing a blame culture that has long lurked around the corridors of Maranello.

When Ferrari proved to be no match for Mercedes on home soil at Monza, Marchionne told the media it was "embarrassing" to see such a gap between F1's two leading teams. "We just screwed up," he added. When engine trouble hit at Suzuka, he said Ferrari had been punished for "ignoring" quality control and that there would be organisational changes in the department.

"Without being arrogant, I think the car is at the same level if not better than Mercedes," he said. "I'm sure if we'd not had any problems like in the last three races, we would be having a different discussion."

Ferrari employees read the media. A selection of the headlines would be circulated around the factory on Monday morning. After working so hard, how must they feel when they see such brutal criticism?

When you have that type of culture, people can't focus on the process of their jobs. Instead they become more scared of failing than focused on succeeding. Talented people are motivated to do their job - and do it well - if they are given a clear strategic direction, backed by their bosses and given the resource with which to do so. Ruling by fear, like a dictatorship, does not work.

People become afraid of admitting to mistakes for fear of losing their jobs. They waste time trying to hide the mistake, which makes the situation worse. But they have families to feed and can't afford to lose their jobs, so may feel they are left with no option.

This culture, fostered by Marchionne, is nothing new. Ross Brawn, who worked at Ferrari between 1997 and 2006, wrote in his book Total Competition how "the middle and top management were watching their backs the whole time". He added: "Middle management were petrified of putting a step out of line and therefore were not functioning properly."

Marchionne should be taking the blame, shielding his staff from the onslaught when things go wrong

Brawn talked of hearing about an employee in the machine shop getting the sack, before he joined the team, following Michael Schumacher's engine blow up in the warm-up lap at Magny-Cours in 1996. "It was like a public hanging," he said. "They'd had an investigation and this guy got hung, drawn and quartered and sacked: 'This is what will happen to anyone that doesn't keep up the standards'."

People do not respond well to threats. The pressure should be taken away so you can work on doing the best job possible to push the business forward, which in turn reduces the risk of you being fired.

Ferrari also cares too much about what the media, particularly in Italy, thinks. Such is the passion of its fanbase and interest from the Italian press that the pressure on Ferrari is high. But the best course of action would be to not respond to it. Marchionne should stop criticising his team in public.

Instead, he should be taking the blame, shielding his staff from the onslaught when things go wrong. If he is not prepared to do that, team principal Maurizio Arrivabene should step up and do so. Jean Todt had success with this approach. He shielded his team from then-president Luca di Montezemolo. That allowed Brawn, who was technical director at the time, to get on with his job.

Marchionne is also too impatient. He needs to realise that lead times are required to achieve success. A long-term strategy needs to be put in place and the bumps along the road to the final goal must be absorbed. There are no short cuts. Reclaiming former glories is not easy. Red Bull, McLaren, Williams and Honda are proof of that.

James Allison had started putting a long-term strategy in place, having joined to lead the technical team in 2013. He built a foundation. But when Ferrari failed to win a race in the opening half of the 2016 season, Marchionne lost patience and showed him the door. The irony is that the work Allison put in will have contributed to the upturn in form Ferrari has encountered this year.

Again, Ferrari has been here before. Aldo Costa was made the scapegoat in 2011 for a poor start to the season. Costa then headed to Mercedes, where he is now playing a key role in its dominance. Mercedes was also quick to snap up Allison when he was given the boot. They are clearly talented people, but they were deemed not good enough to keep by Ferrari. Management made a mistake getting rid of them.

Ferrari has the resources to succeed, but it doesn't spend them wisely. Such a budget allowed for a reliance on track testing, when there were no restrictions in place. It could utilise its own track at Fiorano. This proved invaluable and was one of the keys to its success in the early 2000s.

But when the test restrictions came into force in 2009, Ferrari struggled as its alternative simulation technologies were below standard. It also had trouble with its windtunnel after upgrading the facility and that took years to get on top of. Correlation became a problem, forcing it to temporarily shut it down for a refit and use the former Toyota F1 team facility in Cologne for its 2013 car.

Ferrari is now on top of those problems, but it needs someone at the start of the project to guide it down the right path in the first place, rather than having to react and recover. But the management doesn't seem able to trust its staff to do that or if it does, they are not afforded the time to see the project through.

The reality is Ferrari is as far away as it has ever been from getting its hands on the prize it so dearly craves

Ferrari favours a number one and number two driver policy, even if it doesn't publicly admit it. By re-signing Kimi Raikkonen for next year, it confirmed a continuation of that strategy. It worked well in the early 2000s with Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello, but the team was working efficiently and had the best car for the most part of that success.

It is less successful when you don't have the best car and you subsequently need your second driver to step up if your team leader suffers a problem. Raikkonen has made too many mistakes this year and has proved he is not able to fill in. In contrast, Mercedes has two drivers that have won races this year and scored solidly and consistently. The result is a sizeable lead in the constructors' championship.

Marchionne demands championships from his people, but while Ferrari may have emerged as the closest challenger to Mercedes this year, the reality is it is as far away as it has ever been from getting its hands on the prize it so dearly craves.

That's not for want of trying from its staff, though. They have simply been undone by an insistence on sticking to the same management style, culture and driver strategy that has become Ferrari's curse.