Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFerrari

10-year title drought would be 'a tragedy' for Ferrari

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Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne says a decade without a championship would be "a tragedy" for the team.

Kimi Raikkonen remains Ferrari's last drivers' champion having taken the title in 2007, while it also won the constructors' championship a year later. Since then, dominance from first Red Bull and now Mercedes has prevented it winning another title and Marchionne says success is required soon to help Ferrari's image.

“If we were to string together victories in F1 then it would improve our brand," Marchionne told La Gazzetta dello Sport. "I was speaking with one of our car dealerships and we agreed that the results of 2015 helped bring back credibility to the brand. If we were to somehow fail to win a title over a 10-year span it would be a tragedy.”

And Marchionne isn't willing to chase success at all costs, saying the price of competing in F1 needs to be reduced.

“Well in 2015 we spent less than in the past, and by that I mean with respect to 2014.

“We changed what we were investing in, developing what was needed and cutting down on the other things. We can still improve, but we can’t quite say that the costs of Formula 1 are acceptable, as they are still huge.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.