Ferrari are providing no official news on the team’s progress during the current Formula 1 pre-season testing at Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, which of course has aggrieved the Italian media.
Last year it was quite the contrary as Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne was full of bluster and a quote a minute, as he made demands of his team and with it some pretty naive predictions which, of course, were widely reported.
Needless to say the big boss has admitted that his words have come back to haunt him and even embarrass him. he declared that the team would have a low key approach this time around, and it appears they have stuck to their word.
Perhaps the team have taken offence at the ridicule showered on them by media after a woeful season last year… and right now it’s all dead quiet from the Reds which is not going down well at all in Italy.
Gazzetta della Sport correspondent Luigi Pertna said, “Low profile is acceptable, but not complete silence. Journalists are like engineers. We should be able to give feedback to the fans, who have the right to hear the drivers.”
La Republicca wrote: “Starting the season with a news blackout is absurd. After the sad living nativity scene of the car launch comes this meaningless news blackout. A low profile asked by Marchionne is one thing, but this carelessness is quite another.”
F1 blogger and Ferrari insider Leo Turrini simply wrote: “Ferrari do not speak, in accordance with the new behavioral line imposed by Sergio Marchionne. But they are happy with the outcome of the first day [Monday] of testing.”
Normally, during testing, the team provide a short write up of the day’s proceedings as well as quotes from the driver on duty and an engineer.
They also provide a photo service from the testing of their cars in action and occasional behind the scenes images by Studio Colombo and available from the media section of the Ferrari site.
This time around no reports, no quotes and no photos, hile their Twitter has been relatively quiet with only six tweets during the first couple of days in Spain.