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Mattiacci: Change under way at Ferrari

LONDON, England - Ferrari will be a different Formula 1 team in 2015 with changes already being made at Maranello, team principal Marco Mattiacci said after Sunday's 2014 British Grand Prix.

Fernando Alonso finished only sixth for the Italian team at Silverstone while Kimi Raikkonen crashed out on the opening lap of a race eventually won by Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton.

Mattiacci refused to comment when asked about the future of Ferrari engine head Luca Marmorini, with some reports in Italy last week indicating he had left the team.

'CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT'

The man who replaced Stefano Domenicali at the helm in April 2014 told reporters: "I don't want to point to any individual. We are re-designing the team, we are reinforcing the team. I don't make comments about individuals.

"We don't have to make any announcements. The best announcements are results... we are not happy to be sixth. The weekend was bitter-sweet, a lot of emotion and positive things but we are not happy to be sixth.

"Starting from here we need to prepare a different team for 2015. Do we need to do an announcement? No. Do we need to improve? Continuous improvement, yes. That is our position."

Ferrari is third in the championship but now only three points ahead of Williams, which might have ended the day ahead had Brazilian Felipe Massa's car not been badly damaged when Raikkonen crashed.

Mattiacci praised Alonso's race from 16th on the grid and Raikkonen emerging unscathed from his big accident, as positives.

FIRE AND ICE NOW ALSO-RANS

Alonso, a double F1 champion, has been on the podium only once in 2014 and 2007 champion Raikkonen has finished no higher than seventh. Ferrari is 220 points behind leader Mercedes in the Constructors' championship with 10 races remaining.

The fire-and-ice driver pairing was a talking point before the season started but they have instead been also-rans with the title battle now a duel between Mercedes team mates Hamilton and championship leader Nico Rosberg.

Mattiacci said Ferrari was working hard to improve "what is improvable" on the car. "We have brought a lot of aerodynamics improvement in the last races that found a positive effect on the track so this is a good starting point."

Stay with Wheels24 for the 2014 F1 season – fresh reports every day.
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