Following Ferrari's engine issues at last weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix, Sergio Marchionne has made changes to the team in an attempt to improve the Scuderia's "quality department".
The race at the Sepang International Circuit was set to be one that would favour Ferrari, with both Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen showing consistent pace at the front of the pack in practice.
A seemingly straightforward front-row lockout however, fell apart when Vettel ran into a turbo issue in qualifying, forcing him to start Sunday's race from the pack of the pack in 20th place while Raikkonen qualified in second.
An engine issue for Raikkonen pre-race removed Ferrari from contention for the race win, letting a seemingly secure fifth win of the season slip out of grasp. Vettel delivered under the pressure to finish fourth, however, with Lewis Hamilton securing a second place finish, the gap between the title rivals has been extented in the Drivers' Championship.
"Yesterday, both Ferraris could have won the race," said Marchionne, the President of Ferrari. "That's a fact. It could have also been the same at Singapore, that's another fact.
"It's also a fact that we've got some issues with our power units because we have a young team, but also because the quality of the components is not at the right level for a race car. We are intervening and we are working on it.
"It's almost fortunate we haven't had that problem until the Malaysian GP. Now we're working on the quality department and making some organisational changes," he added, suggesting the outcome of the weekend was a result of inexperience in Ferrari's engine department.
"Having this kind of problem during the race make us angry. That's not a big problem if this kind of issue appears in our factory, but it's really ugly when you're in second place on the grid and you can't start the race."
As a result of a disappointing weekend in Malaysia, Ferrari is now 118 points adrift of Mercedes in the Constructors' Championship while Hamilton extended his lead over Vettel in the Drivers' Championship to 34 points with five races remaining.
