Ferrari alter livery to mark war deaths

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The Ferrari team will pay tribute to four Italian soldiers killed in Afghanistan by wearing black armbands on Sunday at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa’s cars will be “decorated in similar fashion”, the team said on Saturday.

Stefano Domenicali said:

The death of four of our fellow countrymen working as part of a peace mission grieves us greatly. We are with their families in spirit and wish to honour their memory.
Stefano Domenicali

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    Keith Collantine
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    30 comments on “Ferrari alter livery to mark war deaths”

    1. Taliban recently burnt a NATO ammmu. truck , i think this is where these Italian soldiers died.
      A good gesture nontheless.

      1. http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche/cronaca/2010/10/09/visualizza_new.html_1734560462.html
        It’s in Italian: it says they were victims of an attack with a bomb. Four died and one is badly wounded.

    2. Shame mattel (hotwheels) will pass on making a limited edition model again? Like they did in 2001 reference the italian grand prix after 9/11

      1. Tad insensitive to sell it given the reason.

    3. All Italian Sports are marking the 4 deaths this weekend, its not like Ferrari decided off their own backs to do this.

      And 4 dead soldiers isn’t quite the same as 9/11

      1. And 9/11 was nothing compared to the deaths incurred by innocent Iraqi’s when they were attacked by the US.

        1. And when the plutonians attack earth…. wait…. No….

    4. Any picture of the Ferrari?

      1. Not yet, it will be used tomorrow as today they have ran before the attack happened.

      2. It’s just the black band around the Italian flag:
        http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/9918/ferraril.jpg

        1. That is so noticeable when they’re doing 200mph through 130R!

        2. looks almost like Tommy Hilfiger sponsorship.
          (no disrespect intended)

    5. The whole thing reeks of political correctness to me.

      My sympathies can go out for the loss of the soldiers and families loss, but death is an ugly specter hanging over the heads of all of of us. None of us can escape it. It doesn’t discriminate against age, race or origin. It takes anyone at any time, it is no respecter of men.

      My whole point in this above morbid post is that Ferrari is not thinking of a race but of looking good in the newspapers. Do you think that Luca give a **** about soldiers that died? I hate political correctness!

      I’m sad this day to be a Ferrari fan.

      1. Soumya Banerjee
        9th October 2010, 15:56

        How do you know what Luca thinks?

        1. I’ll simply say that I do.*

          1. I ain’t a very big Ferrari fan, but I think what they are doing has nothing to do with looking good…

            It is now common practice in (any) sports to wear a band… And since the Italian government has requested for ALL sports to wear the black band… It pretty silly to say that…

            1. to say that… it is for looking good…

              Let’s give them a break… If the guys were from UK or Germany, I think they would do the same.

            2. It’s good that the nation mourns it’s dead in this conflict. I think if the Brits did it, we’d be doing it every race as Brit’s are regularly dying in Afghanistan. In some sense it shows how the Italian nation will value the lives lost, and I hope try and avoid future repeats as their conscience is stung.

              In the UK, it’s easy to forget how many people have died in Afghanistan and the recent Iraq conflict. I kind of wish the UK did do the same, instead of a 30 second piece on the news, or a few lines in the paper, then briskly forgotten. Life should be valued. When it’s the government of that country sending people off to die for their nation, the least they can do is mark it respectfully and significantly.

            3. The government does not and never has cared about members of the Armed Forces. Honouring the dead is important but it’s unlikely to happen as the government can’t even be bothered to look after the guys who come home alive and that’s why more of our veterans from the Falklands and first Gulf War have committed suicide since coming home than died in battle.

              http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/shocking-suicide-toll-on-combat-veterans-1746475.html

      2. This has nothing to do with Montezemolo or Ferrari. It has been requested by the Italian minister of sport(Petrucci) that ALL Italians observe one minutes silence tomorrow. Ferrari are complying by wearing armbands and a small decal on the flag of the car.Hardy a stunt by the team.

        1. Thanks for clearing that Rampante. At first read i was feeling a bit like Alex Bkk writes, but if it’s like that it is only a good thing to go along with the whole of italy.

          And from the picture robbertmt posted, it is really a very delicate black band added to the flag.

          1. Any mark of respect for the loss of life in Afghanistan is welcomed by me.

      3. It is sad that you think that an Italian wouldn’t care about his fellow countryman. He is human after all. Just because he is head of Ferrari doesn’t mean that he is the devil. :-(

    6. Although it’s far more subtle than the Monza 2001 or Bahrain 2005 livery it’s a nice gesture to pay their respects IMO.

      1. They probably didn’t have time to make new parts and fly them to Japan, like they would have for Italy in 2001. It’s likely just some black tape on the bodywork.

    7. How about not sending them to get killed instead of wearing stupid armbands.

    8. I will take my hat off to soldiers who die in any war. The poor buggers are brain washed and geared towards fighting for their country even if the war is pointless. I disagree with war in general in most cases. There is almost never a valid reason for any war in todays society.
      What dissappoints me though is that I did hear a while back that the Taliban was PAID not to harm Italian soldiers. This was in the news quite a while back. I think you will find their casualties are very few in their time in Afghanastan.

      I dont know what is worse. Politics or war ??? I guess they both go hand in hand though.

    9. Actually the correct answer to why, is “I don’t know”, which is Alonso’s answer when Mark asked him.

      1. Actually, I think I heard Alonso responding to Webber’s question by saying,”…some Italian…”

    10. Did anybody else catch the moment when Webber asked Alonso what is the armband for in the room before podium? If I “heard” correctly he said I don’t know…

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