Marchionne: It's a painful way of learning

Ferrari chief Sergio Marchionne does not believe in luck despite the fact that extraordinary circumstances conspired to destory Sebastian Vettel's title charge in the second half of the season.

The German has not won a race since the Hungarian Grand Prix before the summer break, and saw his championship challenge fizzle out as he and Ferrari tripped up - the spark plug debacle springs to mind - while his title rival Lewis Hamilton simply gained momentum, sustained i until he clinched the title in Mexico with two races remaining in the season.

Summing up where it went wrong for his team, Marchionne said, "What went wrong with F1? I don't believe in bad luck. Ultimately it's a reflection on the way in which we managed these businesses."

"It was a combination of, especially in the second half of the season, between technical issues and driver error, or driver misjudgement. I think we've learned a lot, I think it's a painful way of learning it."

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"I think the second half revealed some structural weaknesses in the manner in which we're managing this business, which are going to get rectified. Hopefully 2018 will be a much better season."

Marchionne does not mince his words when it comes to assessing his team's performance, "I remind everybody who asks me this question [about Formula 1] and I'm probably the most critical of the way in which we manage our Formula 1 activities."

"If I'd asked anyone this time last year as to how well we'd have done in 2017, I couldn't have got a buyer for the idea that we would have been that far advanced in the first half of the season.

"We have done well, given our starting point, we were unable to finish the task, it's a 2018 objective now. We regret not having done better, the car is there, it is in my view probably the best car on the track today," added the Ferrari president.