The Ferrari Formula 1 team has drafted in Maria Mendoza from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to reorganise its quality control department.
Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne has said his team paid the price for “ignoring” quality control with its technical director Mattia Binotto confirming changes were being made to the department.
Sebastian Vettel’s title hopes appear dashed after a crash in Singapore and engine troubles in Malaysia and Japan leave him 59 points adrift with 100 remaining.
Autosport has learned Mendoza has been called in to organise the reshuffle in the quality control department, and part of Binotto’s changes behind the scenes.
Binotto hinted that changes were imminent at last week’s Japanese GP, saying: “What we are considering is something, already planned, to improve our quality department.
“Our quality department will be and somehow is already reinforced and those are the changes that our chairman was meaning.”
Mendoza was previously head of quality control of the powertrain department for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. She graduated from Zaragoza University, and joined the FIAT Group in 2012.
Marchionne revealed earlier this week that it was a €59 spark plug that forced Vettel’s retirement from the Japanese Grand Prix.
In an interview with Italy’s Class CNBC television channel, Marchionne said: “It was a technical nonsense that had an impact on a car that costs millions of euros.
“It’s a problem we’ve probably ignored over time because it was never of much importance.
“But now we’ve had at least three occasions where we’ve really seen the devastating impact on performance. We’ll fix it.”