Ferrari could not deal with Fernando Alonso’s complaints regarding performance in 2014 due to the New York Stock Exchange.
Ferrari is owned by the Fiat-Chrysler group. Back in 2014, their parent company could not afford to deal with the team’s poor performance. In the years leading up to the season, their performances kept deteriorating.
After being able to fight for race wins and Titles, their car performance took a massive dip in 2014. They had former World Champions Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso at the helm at the time. The former was getting increasingly frustrated because he felt he was wasting his prime years with a team that couldn’t fight for glory.
This was an incident that was similar to that of four-time Champion Alain Prost. The French driver joined Ferrari at a time when they were lacking pace. As a result, he was frustrated and wanted more say in the team. This was something the management would not allow.
Also read: How Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso swap for Ferrari and Mercedes was on the cards
How did the New York Stock exchange lead to Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari exit?
Back in 2014, there was the pressure of the floatation of the Fiat-Chrysler group on New York’s stock exchange. Ferrari was their Halo brand and F1 was the main market for them. As a result, they could afford to have a car that was underperforming as consistently as the F14T was.
Alonso wanted more control within Ferrari because he felt that the team could do better if they listened to him. This was something Ferrari was not going to allow and the pressure grew on them. Alonso is a two-time World Champion and his status as of the all-time greats was doing more bad than good. People in general started to feel that Alonso’s years were actually being wasted.
#ALO14 Fernando Alonso pic.twitter.com/YMn0sKzIPB
— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) July 30, 2014
On top of that, Alonso was openly critical of the Ferrari’s management and development. The Maranello-based outfit decided that it was time for them to let go of Alonso, since they could not deal with the tantrums. Their parent company’s (Fiat-Chrysler) problems in the NYSE added to the problems, and they could not deal with the controversy.
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