Ferrari sharpens up its team

Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro knows that it lost the Drivers' World Championship this year, despite having a faster car than rival McLaren at most races. In an effort to improve the team there have been a number of changes with the primary alteration to the team's structure being the disappearance of operations division of the team, which had been headed by Mario Almondo. He has been moved on and will become head of quality control of the road car division. Production and quality control will thus move under the control of technical director Aldo Costa, while the running of the race team will be handed over to Massimo Rivola, who has been recruited from Scuderia Toro Rosso. He will look after the logistics, the running of the team at the circuits and the rules.
There are also going to be some other changes in the race with the head of the transmission assembly department Diego Ioverno, taking charge of all assembly, with help coming from another new recruit, Mick Ainsley-Cowlishaw, who has a long history in F1, going back to a career as a mechanic with Benetton. He became chief mechanic in the late 1990s and then moved on to Arrows with Tom Walkinshaw and ended up as team manager. He returned as team manager of Super Aguri until the team closed last Spring.
Dr Thierry Baritaud, a Frenchman, has been named as the head of the KERS programme. An engine specialist, he joined Ferrari in 2000 from the French government's Institut Francais du Petrole and has been working in engine development in Maranello ever since.
The race egineering team is to change also with Kimi Raikkonen getting a new race engineer in Andrea Stella. Australian Chris Dyer has been promoted to coordinate all race engineering activities, including the test team, reporting to Luca Baldisserri, who retains his role as head of track operations.
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