Arrivabene to Leave Ferrari and F1?

Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene is on the shortlist to become Juventus’ new general director, according to reports in the Italian press.

Arrivabene is reportedly coming under increasing pressure at the Scuderia as another World Championship slips away from their grasp and into the hands of Mercedes.

And the 61-year-old, who took over as Ferrari team principal in 2014, could be given a fresh start by European giants Juventus, who are on the hunt for a new general director after it was announced that Giuseppe Marotta is stepping down from the Juve board.

Arrivabene is closely associated to the Agnelli family, which own Exor, the holding company behind Ferrari, FIAT and Juventus.

Exor have released a list of nine candidates for the general director role, with Arrivabene’s name featuring alongside Juventus legend Pavel Nedved.

There is a sense that Ferrari are ready to move into a new era, especially with the new Scuderia board going ahead in bringing Charles Leclerc into their driver line-up from 2019, while Arrivabene himself preferred to keep Kimi Raikkonen in the team.

After another defeat to Mercedes in Russia at the Sochi Autodrom, Arrivabene conceded something was missing at Ferrari as their slump continues.

“Right from Friday, the Sochi weekend was rather a difficult one for us,” said Arrivabene.

“Despite all our efforts to find the ideal set-up, neither on Saturday nor in the race were we competitive enough to worry our closest rivals.

“Compared to the way we performed at other circuits, something was missing here and so we were unable to reduce the points gap.”

Sebastian Vettel is 50 points behind title rival Lewis Hamilton in the World Drivers’ Championship, while Ferrari are 53 points behind in the Constructors’ with five races remaining.

Throughout the weekend, Ferrari were no match for the Silver Arrows at all. Although Vettel topped a couple of practice sessions, Hamilton and Bottas dominated qualifying. The loss in Sochi was just another nail in the coffin for Arrivabene.