• The Inside Line

Two smart cookies, one big mistake

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Anyone who thinks that Sebastian Vettel isn't a clever man has another think coming. The same applies to Fernando Alonso. The two drivers are both exceptionally talented, and while their approaches to the paddock political game couldn't be more different, they both get the job done and then some.

But with the rumblings that Marco Mattiacci's tenure as Ferrari team principal is unlikely to last the year, either Alonso or Vettel appears to have made a big mistake.

Having spent five years chasing an elusive third title - and what would have been his first with the Scuderia - Alonso finally gave up the ghost this season and is off to pastures not-so-new in the hopes that a change of scene will be just what is needed to increase the size of his trophy collection.

Over the past five years Alonso has seen Ferrari come close but no cigar twice, but the Spanish racer has also become familiar with the problems at Maranello: complex inter-departmental relationships making rapid-fire decision making easier said than done; a culture of blame that makes for a dangerous environment for risk-takers; the pressure of being the only Formula One team with the weight of a country's expectations on its shoulders…

Alonso - who had hoped to end his career in a red race suit, clutching a massive trophy haul - has been forced to cut his losses.

Vettel, on the other hand, is doing a Hamilton while hoping to pull off a Schumacher. Bidding farewell to the team that nurtured him since boyhood, the quadruple champion is young enough that he can afford to bide his time while Ferrari attempt to return to their winning ways of the start of the millennium, even if it takes the same five fallow years it took Formula One's most decorated champion when he made the move from Benetton. If Abu Dhabi paddock chatter is correct, and Mattiacci is indeed on the way out, Alonso may well find himself regretting his decision to leave. On (rumoured) pole position for the job of Ferrari team principal is Maurizio Arrivabene, a man with infinitely more F1 experience than the incumbent.

Arrivabene is brand manager for Marlboro Europe, and has long been involved in the affairs of Maranello both on- and off-track thanks to the long-running Philip Morris sponsorship deal which is itself coming to an end. He has been there for Ferrari's feasts and for their famines, and is well-versed not only in the commercial side of the sport but also in the nuts and bolts of Scuderia Ferrari itself.

His arrival - assuming the reports are accurate - signals a change of approach from Sergio Marchione, although there are many in the paddock who have long thought that Mattiacci's tenure as Ferrari team principal was only ever destined to be a temporary exercise aimed at giving the expert salesman experience of Maranello's sporting side before promoting him into what was Luca di Montezemolo's old job.

Mattiacci and Alonso's relationship could best be described as civil, whereas Alonso got on well with Arrivabene, a man the Spaniard acknowledges as sharing the same passion for racing that powers the bulk of the paddock.

Mr Marlboro is no magic bullet, of course, and there is no guarantee that any change of leadership for the team will see them back on championship-dominating form, but with a figurehead the team already know - and who knows Formula One and its stakeholders and has done for years - Alonso's decision to call it quits no longer looks like the no-brainer it was at the start of the weekend.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

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