Marchionne: I have to admit that I looked silly

Marchionne led a revolution at Maranello, ousting Luca di Montezemolo, appointing Marurizio Arrivabane as team chief and signing off on a huge deal to lure Sebastian Vettel to Maranello.

He then went on to declare early last year, “We want to present ourselves in Australia as the team to beat. We know that our rivals are strong, but we are not afraid of them as we are the most successful team in the history of Formula 1.”

Now, a year later the Ferrari big boss is contrite and a lot more reserved, and admitted, "Intellectual honesty is important but I have to admit that I looked silly. Clearly, there were problems with the flow of information, but the matter has since been corrected."

"If an employee tells me that our car is four seconds faster than the last one, I have no choice but to believe him," explained Marchionne.