Ferrari needs to find “habit to win” mentality in 2019

Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene says his squad must “swap mentality from a fighter to a winner” in 2019 to improve its aspirations to secure a long-awaited Formula 1 world title.

After losing out to Mercedes again in 2018, Ferrari’s wait for an F1 world championship – either drivers’ or constructors’ – will stretch to over a decade counting back to its 2008 F1 world constructors’ crown.

Having been fancied to have the fastest F1 car for the majority of last season, Arrivabene feels improving the all-round package plus changing Ferrari’s mindset will be vital in order to change results for next season.

“[We need] the habit to win,” Arrivabene said. “A kind of reinforcement but, as I said, but we need to swap our mind and to work a bit more on the habit to win.

“We need to win enough to win the championship, of course. Then it depends on the performance of the other teams, how many. Having said so, the habit to win, it’s very simple. If you are doing one-two it doesn’t have to be an exceptional event.

“It must be a habit. In that way you are changing and you swap your mentality from a fighter to a winner. That’s it.”

While refusing to put blame on any single mistake from last season, with both driver errors and mid-season development issues appearing to curtail Ferrari’s charge against Mercedes, Arrivabene says the collective approach is vital to keep team morale and motivation going into 2019.

“As Sebastian [Vettel] said, he made mistake, then from Monza onwards we were not there with the car and this is a fact, too, if you’re talking about facts,” he said. “I don’t want to point the finger at the team or on the driver.

“If we are losing, we are losing together. If we are winning, we are winning together. And that’s it.”

Vettel welcomes Charles Leclerc alongside him at Ferrari for 2019 with Kimi Raikkonen heading to Sauber in effectively a straight swap between the two drivers.