Stella: Working at Ferrari is not just a job

Now at McLaren as Performance Director, Alonso's former race engineer Stella says Ferrari lacks no resources compared to the other top teams in F1, "Same equipment, capable and prepared people, so it is not a problem of availability of materials or knowledge. There is everything at Ferrari that they have in England.

"The difference is that in England, F1 is just a job. Your waiter maybe knows you work in F1 but it doesn't matter that much but, working at Ferrari is not just a job. You leave the office, go to the bar and the bartender asks you when Ferrari will win. You go to a restaurant and they ask if you will win the next race.

"You open the paper in the morning and there is always an article about Ferrari. But in how the teams work, I don't see any difference. At Ferrari, they have the same methods and approach as the English teams.

"Nothing is missing, especially the experience and skill of someone like Binotto. So it only takes time to get back to winning but, in Maranello, it is the only thing missing so we were always in trouble," explained Stella who spent 14-years at Ferrari before accompanying Fernando Alonso to McLaren at the end of 2014.

Echoing Stella's opinion is his former Ferrari colleague Aldo Costa, the engineering boss at Mercedes who was the technical director at Ferrari when Kimi Raikkonen won that last Ferrari drivers' title in 2007 and their 2008 constructors' title.

Recalling when he moved to Mercedes in 2012, Costa told Automoto he found a team with a "very pragmatic and flexible way of working devoid of politics and drama. At Mercedes, the staff is put in the best condition to express themselves to the full."

Costa suggested the same cannot be said of conditions at Maranello, "At Ferrari, you are under constant observation, every moment of the day. There is also pressure from media, from fans, from shareholders, from the barista when he serves you a coffee in the morning!"