"2015 will be a difficult year that will put the team to a real test," says new boss and admits Sebastian Vettel has made a "big gamble"

Ferrari’s new hierarchy have warned the team are braced for another “difficult” season after enduring a traumatic “year to forget in 2014”.

The Prancing Horse's lame start to F1’s new turbo era has triggered unprecedented upheaval at Maranello. After two decades in charge, Luca di Montezemolo has been replaced by Sergio Marchionne as President, while Maurizio Arrivabene became the team’s third boss in eight months when he succeeded the ousted Marco Mattiacci in the immediate aftermath of a dismal season in which the Scuderia scored just two podium finishes.

Both the team’s head of engineering, Pat Fry, and chief designer Nikolas Tombazis have since paid the price for Ferrari’s inability to win a race – their first such failure in almost 20 years – with their jobs, while tyre chief Hirohide Hamashima will also depart at the end of the year.

"I will try not to talk about 2014 because it has been a year to forget,” Marchionne told a press conference at Maranello. "So instead let’s talk about the future; we will look towards 2015 with some optimism."

But only guarded optimism. Fernando Alonso, generally recognised as the most complete driver on the grid, has departed to be replaced by Sebastian Vettel, while the recruitment of Jock Clear, formerly Lewis Hamilton’s performance engineer, as Fry’s replacement has been tempered by the refusal of Mercedes to grant Clear an immediate release from his contract.

In a telling admission, Marchionne warned that Ferrari are already behind schedule in their 2015 preparations.

"We started late with the 2015 car, certain choices and strategies that were made by others and that, in retrospect, I don't necessarily share," he said.

"2015 will be a difficult year that will put the team to a real test. I think 2015 is going to be a reconstitution year. It will be Maurizio's first full year with the team.”

After being dropped by Sauber and Toro Rosso respectively, Esteban Gutierrez and Jean-Eric Vergne have been added to Ferrari’s driver roster, but it is Vettel, striving to emulate the success of Michael Schumacher almost 20 years after his boyhood hero joined Ferrari when the team were at an equally low ebb in the mid-1990s, who will be the undisputed figurehead of the team’s new era.

“I don’t think he’s naive, he knows our level of performance but this is the power of Ferrari: it manages to attract people even just based on its potential," said Marchionne. "Our job for 2015 is to set this potential free. Vettel’s big gamble is ours too, to reconstruct the team and to make it grow."

The first of three 2015 pre-season tests begins at Jerez in southern Spain on February 1.

Ferrari in January 2014

President: Luca di Montezemolo.

Team Principal: Stefano Domenicali.

Technical Director: James Allison.

Engine chief: Luca Marmorini.

Engineering Director: Pat Fry.

Chief designer: Nikolas Tombazis.

Drivers: Fernando Alonso & Kimi Raikkonen.

Ferrari in December 2014

President: Sergio Marchionne.

Team Principal: Maurizio Arrivabene.

Technical Director: James Allison.

Engine chief: Mattia Binotto.

Chief designer: Simone Resta.

Drivers: Sebastian Vettel & Kimi Raikkonen.