What Ferrari must do to beat Mercedes

Ferrari has not won a Formula 1 title in the past 10 seasons. But for the fact that the team has a history of lean spells between its glory years - notably the 15 fallow campaigns between its 1983 and '99 constructors' successes - you'd reckon it unthinkable for a team of this size and fame to go so long without clinching the ultimate prize.

But Ferrari is a uniquely challenging beast.

The recent decision to axe Maurizio Arrivabene from his role of team principal after four campaigns, with former chief technical officer Mattia Binotto replacing him, is the price for a relative lack of success. It was the right decision, for it wasn't simply the lack of results that did for Arrivabene, but the impact he had on the team. Leading a title-contending grand prix operation is never easy, but arguably it is harder at Ferrari than anywhere else, and Arrivabene's leadership qualities proved not to be compatible with the unique pressures at Maranello.

Mercedes is now the team Ferrari once was - a tight-knit, ferocious race-winning machine that has enjoyed five consecutive double world championship successes. To knock Mercedes, and star driver Lewis Hamilton, off their perch has been within Ferrari's reach for the past two campaigns.

But never has the phrase 'so near and yet so far' seemed so appropriate because, while Ferrari pushed Mercedes close in both 2017 and '18, in the final reckoning it was a long way off after slumps in the closing stages of both contests.

So what must Ferrari do to bridge that gap and make the step from being a thorn in Mercedes' side to defeating it? It's clear that there's no need for a revolution, but in his new role Binotto must focus on several key areas that, collectively, could help get the job done.

Ease the pressure

This is easier said than done, but what was clear was that outgoing team principal Arrivabene's leadership style was based more on piling on pressure and allowing a culture of blame to emerge.

This is an inadequate approach to get the best out of an F1 team, populated mostly with highly motivated and intelligent people, and is often the approach taken by a second-rater put in such a position. There will always be pressure, but the team culture - and the team boss in particular - can alleviate it.

New team principal Binotto is one of those highly motivated and intelligent individuals, and has shown during his successful spell as chief technical officer that he can get the best out of a team of people. There's every chance that Binotto can do this while in charge of the whole operation. Last year, he was asked by Autosport about how he had turned around the technical department, and his response reveals a little of what he's about.

"I think it's fair to say that our team, in terms of individuals, is very strong," said Binotto.

Everyone makes mistakes - the biggest of all is for leadership not to recognise that and multiply the errors by thinking otherwise

"We've got very high skills; it's a fantastic team in that respect, whatever areas. And from the power unit to the chassis and to the aero. I think what we're benefiting from in the last seasons is certainly stability in terms of the organisation, which in F1 is very important, because through the stability somehow you may start to set down a way of working, improve your procedures, your internal process.

"I think, relative to myself, I'm certainly not an expert in all the areas. Twenty-five years of experience in F1; great time with Ferrari at the race track in the time of Michael Schumacher, but always as a power-unit man.

"When I grew up in that final role I think what for me was important was to set the objectives and to make sure that the people were comfortable in their role, understood the internal process and worked better not only as individuals but as a team.

"And where we've focused all the effort is, I think, to make sure that the team was working properly as a team, and forgetting about the individuals. And that's why, again, I think we are thinking about the car as a full package, and not try to split down in terms of different components or units, because we are a team and what is running is not a power unit or a wing but a full car.

"So, again, all the effort was to build the team as a team and set the right objectives, deal with them, try to be ambitious. I think that's somehow what happened in the last two years."

The elimination of a blame culture is essential. Sometimes, including in certain F1 teams, this objective is misinterpreted as not encouraging the isolation of problem areas. What it actually represents is the knowledge by individuals that they can highlight problems or mistakes, even if of their own making, with confidence that the focus will be on correcting them rather than issuing blame.

Everyone makes mistakes - the biggest of all is for leadership not to recognise that and multiply the errors and the politics by thinking otherwise.

Do not focus only on results

This might sound counter-intuitive, but strong results are the consequence of a focus on sound processes and resisting the temptation to overreach.

Yes, there are times when you can choose to be a little more aggressive or slightly more conservative according to the competitive situation, but F1 teams are at their best when they rely on good decision-making and working practices.

Technically, Ferrari has been very impressive in recent years, producing a strong car in 2017 that was particularly good on slower tracks, then building on that in '18 with a machine that was stronger on a wider range of circuits. This suggests that, fundamentally, it is on the right path technically.

Where things went wrong last year was with upgrades after the Italian Grand Prix, where the team gave off the air of overreaching itself. Not only did the parts not improve matters, but they sometimes made the car less competitive (falling back not just from Mercedes, but down towards Red Bull), and they were also a distraction.

Exactly why these errors, related to the sealing of the floor among other problems, were made is not clear. But there's every chance it was down to the pressure of the title fight and the need to catch up with Mercedes in the points. Mercedes, meanwhile, redoubled its efforts based on the practices and processes that had won it the previous four titles and was rewarded.

Sometimes teams overreach. This was emphasised at Suzuka when a ridiculous gamble was made in qualifying to send both Ferraris out in Q3 on wet-weather tyres on a dry track.

Ultimately, it didn't prove too costly, but sometimes you have to accept that your best is only good enough for second, and make sure you don't risk dropping further back with a futile roll of the dice. If Ferrari focuses on getting the best out of what it's got, something it was good at in the first half of last season, this will stand it in good stead.

Get the best out of Vettel

Sebastian Vettel rightly drew plenty of criticism for his string of errors in 2018, which at the very least cost him the chance to take the title much closer to the wire than he did. He has to carry some of that responsibility, but drivers do not exist in a vacuum, and increasingly he had the air of a man carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders in a team that was losing control operationally.

He is an emotional character - during Vettel's Red Bull pomp, race engineer Guillaume Rocquelin was exceptionally good at keeping his charge focused during races. Vettel would still complain over the radio, but during this period this was turned into an effective way to vent. At times last season, the Ferrari environment seemed to lack the pressure-relief valve Vettel needed.

In an interview for an upcoming edition of The Autosport Podcast, former Ferrari test driver Luciano Burti, who still follows grand prix racing very closely in his role as a television commentator, suggested the team could have done more to get Vettel back on track after his disastrous crash while leading the German Grand Prix.

Nobody doubts that Leclerc has already reached a high level in F1 and will perform well for Ferrari, but the team has to be adaptable to how effective he is early on

"It was a really tiny mistake, which happens, and he was unlucky it happened in the wrong time and the wrong place and had a big consequence," said Burti.

"From then on, I really think that someone like Jean Todt [the FIA president was Ferrari team principal from 1993-2007] would give him good feedback. I think Vettel felt maybe on his own to fight back from his mistake.

"Once you have that pressure, if you say as a racing driver, 'I cannot make a mistake on the next lap or the next corner', you make a mistake. Once I think about it, that's it. I think that's what happened to him. Although he's a great champion, he's too human and when you have those feelings it doesn't do you any good.

"He was on his own and someone like Jean would have made the difference to put him back on track, because it's not normal to see a four-time champion make so many mistakes, and silly mistakes sometimes."

This does not mean Vettel can't take any blame for what happened, but any team must operate to get the most out of its star driver. They all have their idiosyncrasies and are at their best in the right environment. If Binotto can make Ferrari into a more rational, studious and calm operation - very much in his own image - then Vettel could be back to his crushing best.

Many have assumed Vettel is now a busted flush in F1. It's possible that he is, but he didn't win four world championships for nothing, and some of his performances in the first half of last season were exceptional. Get Vettel in the right operating window, and much of the points gap to Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton last season would have been eliminated.

Let Leclerc have his chance

For all Vettel's troubles last year, he does go into the 2019 season as Ferrari's team leader and title hope. But that does not mean, actually must not mean, that newly promoted team-mate Charles Leclerc is not given his head.

Leclerc has shown himself equal to every challenge thrown at him during his racing career, but the 21-year-old faces a bigger test than ever before by being thrown into the pressure-cooker environment of Ferrari for only his second year in F1. It was the right decision by Ferrari after Leclerc excelled at Sauber but, just as the team must ensure it gets the most from Vettel, the same applies to Leclerc.

Even at the end of last season there was evidence that Ferrari was working hard to ensure it does just that, with engineer Jock Clear confirming in November that he'd be working with Leclerc.

"I have a lot of experience with young drivers and a lot of experience with experienced drivers as well," said Clear.

"With Charles coming in I'll help in any way I can to make his life easier, to ease some of the pressure, to make sure we get the best out of Charles and out of the team as a whole over the next few years."

Nobody doubts that Leclerc has already reached a high level in F1 and will perform well for Ferrari, but the team has to be adaptable to how effective he is early on. It must not fear the possibility that he could outperform Vettel, but should also accept that he will likely need time to adapt to life in a top team and that he must be allowed to work towards fulfilling his prodigious potential.

What it must not do is simply cast him as a number two from the off. Ferrari has made the right call and backed a young driver with serious ability, so it must be willing to make the most of him - and if necessary deal with the resulting fallout if it upsets the balance of power in a team Vettel has led for four years.

Be willing to make the tough decisions

One of the starkest contrasts between the management of Mercedes and Ferrari last season was the approach to team orders. While the concept of team orders is understandably a source of fury for many fans, it is sometimes a necessary evil for teams.

At last year's Russian Grand Prix, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff ordered Hamilton past Valtteri Bottas because of the threat of Vettel behind. In the final reckoning, it wasn't necessary but at the time it was a valid move.

Wolff didn't like making that decision and, if anything, had been a little indecisive by suggesting pre-race that it wouldn't happen, in the hope that such an unusual situation wouldn't materialise. But when it came to the crunch, he made the difficult call.

At Ferrari, Arrivabene seemed unwilling to do this. At Monza, it was deemed to be Vettel's turn to go ahead of Kimi Raikkonen on the final run of qualifying, ultimately giving Raikkonen a tow and the boost he needed to take pole position. This put Vettel on a direct course to his clash with Hamilton on the opening lap, a moment that marked the turning point in the title battle. There was also hesitancy in the German Grand Prix to order Raikkonen to let Vettel past after Vettel had made a pitstop - a needless reticence, given they were on offset strategies at that moment.

Arrivabene had a strange attitude to the media, with his offish attitude towards it suggesting a genuine fear

In a tight title fight, clarity of thinking in such situations can make a decisive difference in the outcome. While Binotto should not allow a situation like the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix to arise - an egregious misuse of team orders - there must be a willingness to make the tough decisions.

And that doesn't just mean that Ferrari should help Vettel, for if Leclerc were to be the better performer then there must be a willingness to cast even a multiple world champion as the support act should the need arise.

Comparisons to the Todt era are unavoidable, and one characteristic of his leadership was a refusal to care what the outside world thought. He made decisions for the good of the team. The new management must not cower from such tough choices.

Work better with the media

This sounds like a very self-serving suggestion given that Autosport is a publication that specialises in motorsport journalism, but interacting with the media is important.

Arrivabene had a strange attitude to the media, with his offish attitude towards it suggesting a genuine fear. In particular, there was too much concern about what the Italian media was saying.

When Ross Brawn joined Ferrari, he stopped the practice of newspapers and newspaper cuttings being shared with all departments within Maranello, to eliminate the outside pressure and ensure greater focus internally.

Keeping the media happy should not be an objective for a team, but it is of value, both in terms of playing the paddock political games and also communicating to your team members.

F1 teams today are massive, and it's impossible to have the kind of relationship between the leadership and staff that you'd hope for. As such, many people inside the teams will consume the media not just to understand the wider storylines of grand prix racing, but also what's going on inside their own operations.

It's also a good way to solidify the culture of your organisation. At Mercedes, Wolff's public comments on what his team are doing generally match what's happening internally and underpin a culture not built on fear and reprisals, but collaboration and communication.

An F1 team can use its public comments to its advantage, which is what Ferrari must do.

Don't change too much

Ferrari doesn't need a revolution in order to beat Mercedes. Since its faltering start to the V6 hybrid turbo era it has generally been on an upward curve, with the technical changes in 2016 particularly important.

It has good personnel, a proven record for producing competitive cars, a multiple world champion driver and one of the hottest young talents grand prix racing has seen in recent times, a big budget, and a capacity to win races in a tight battle with a formidable opponent.

Elite sport these days is all about the aggregation of marginal gains and, with most of the fundamental building blocks in place, the priority should be to make small improvements where possible and ensure the culture is right to maximise the team's potential.

Do that, and Ferrari's title drought may be about to end.