Maranello, Italy - The winds of change have swept through Ferrari and even Christmas has a different feel now.
Media invited to the team's Fiorano test track to attend the traditional seasonal lunch in a building next to Enzo Ferrari's old house knew what to expect when former chairman Luca di Montezemolo was in charge.
Like a Medici prince of old, sitting in the middle of a long table, the elegant Italian would hold court and pronounce on anything and everything that vexed or pleased him.
At the 2013 gathering, his last such occasion, the impeccably dressed 67-year-old merely toyed with a salad as the steaming tortellini in brodo and sliced pork sausage with lentils were served.
Over the course of the meal, Montezemolo would lay into the sport's over-complex rules, with particular scorn for any that he considered disadvantageous for Ferrari, and emphasise the need to improve the show.
There was much to displease him at the end of 2013, with a new V6 turbo hybrid engine formula in the offing, and he did not hold back.
The menu was unchanged when the media returned to Fiorano on Monday, and new Ferrari chairman Sergio Marchionne also had plenty to get his teeth into after a dismal season for Formula One's oldest, most glamorous and successful team.
FORMAL NEWS CONFERENCE
But the style, two months after Montezemolo's departure and with double world champion Fernando Alonso also gone along with a host of others, was different.
His helicopter's arrival delayed by fog in Turin, the Fiat Chrysler chief executive showed he meant business - even if he prefers a wool sweater to a business suit - by addressing the media at a formal news conference with new team principal Maurizio Arrivabene alongside.
In a rhetorical flourish that Montezemolo would have approved of, he said the rules appeared to have been written by a bunch of bar room drunkards, but otherwise his message avoided hyperbole.
Whereas Montezemolo liked to invoke the spirit of Ferrari, and spoke passionately about the magic of Maranello, Marchionne was more matter of fact.
The 2014 season was best forgotten, he said, and next season would still be difficult - but the right people were now in place for future success.
Spain's double world champion Fernando Alonso has left for McLaren and been replaced by quadruple champion Sebastian Vettel from Red Bull, with 2007 champion Kimi Raikkonen staying.
Asked what he expected from Vettel, Marchionne smiled: "I expect the same thing from a German driver as I do from a Spanish driver. To drive the hell out of the car and win races.
"Their role in life is to race and to win."
NEW BLOOD
Ferrari has also recruited Jock Clear, the Mercedes engineer who helped Lewis Hamilton win the 2013 Formula One championship, as the final key element in the Italian team's rebuilding after a dismal year.
Arrivabene said Clear would be taking the departed Pat Fry's job as head of engineering, with his arrival date still being negotiated with Mercedes.
"We respect agreements and regulations," he added.
Clear, who also worked with Jacques Villeneuve at Williams when the Canadian won the 1997 title, will bring invaluable knowhow to Ferrari from Mercedes at a time when the Italian team is playing catch up.
However, Arrivabene dismissed speculation that former Mercedes technical director Bob Bell, who resigned in December 2013, could also be moving to Maranello.
"The team is there," he said. "There is no great news to be announced, no surprises. We have to believe in the people we have."
He said he was looking to Vettel to lead and motivate a team that finished fourth overall in 2013.
"No man is an island," he said. "I am not a magician, there are no miracles to be made. We have to work as a team, this is the most important thing.
"I don't believe in individual success. I believe in team success," he added.
"Drivers become the stars of the show but they must be treated like employees. They must work as a team and help rebuild the team."
TEAM PLAYERS
He said that Mexican driver Esteban Gutierrez, who was presented as Ferrari's test and reserve driver last week after being dropped by Swiss-based Sauber at the end of the season, had been thrown into Formula One too young and paid the price but Ferrari could help him prove his worth
That deal was followed by the announcement that Gutierrez's Mexican backers, telecommunications giant America Movil, were also joining the sport's oldest and most successful team as sponsors.
Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne was subsequently signed as another test driver, focusing on simulator work, with some media reports suggesting he would do the more substantial work - but Arrivabene said 23-year-old Gutierrez should not be underestimated.
"He is a driver that made his debut in F1 too soon," he said. "Talented drivers must not be thrown on to the scene too early. I am sure he is talented and will have a chance to show it."
Ferrari-powered Sauber failed to score a point in 2013 in its worst season in Formula One; Gutierrez and experienced German team-mate Adrian Sutil were dropped at the end of the campaign in favour of two drivers who brought in substantial funding - Sweden's Marcus Ericsson and Brazilian rookie Felipe Nasr.
Reuters