All eyeballs will be on Ferrari’s performance on the track come July. However for now Ferrari is in the news for a very different reason. The former head of Ferrari for the Australasia region, Herbert Appleroth has been in the news for having a consensual relationship with an employee. The employee then became pregnant with his child. Fearing embarrassment Appleroth tried to talk her into an abortion. He also tried to justify himself by saying most senior officials engage in an act like this even Maurizio Arrivabene.

Maurizio Arrivabene was Scuderia Ferrari’s Team Pincipal from 2014 till 2019. Mattia Binotto replaced him as Team Principal in January 2019.

Appleroth name-checks former Ferrari Team Principal Maurizio Arrivabene

Appleroth made a bold claim saying, “ It’s a notorious fact among the senior officers.” He also said that senior staff at Ferrari “routinely“‘ engage in “consensual sexual relations” with their employees. He also called out Ferrari F1’s former team principal Maurizio Arrivabene for the same. When Stuff.co.nz tried to contact him for a comment, he wasn’t available.

If what Appleroth says is true then it is a massive disgrace for not only Ferrari’s F1 team but them for Ferrari as a whole. It calls into question Ferrari’s integrity and work ethics. It also puts a cloud of suspicion over every high ranking official at Ferrari even current F1 Team Principal, Mattia Binotto.

Now, questions will be raised asking if Maurizio Arrivaben was sacked because of Ferrari’s poor performances in 2018, or was it because his dark history was discovered. Appleroth may have inadvertently started a clean-up operation at Ferrari.

To save their image, CEO Louis Camilleri may want to cut some senior officials’ jobs to set an example for others. If not that then, Ferrari may want to hush this case up. They could claim Appleroth’s statements are false and that he is delusional. They could either uncover a scandal or move on like nothing has happened. Whatever the choice may be, it’s Ferrari’s move next.