“No more excuses” for Ferrari – Montezemolo

2014 Spanish Grand Prix

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Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo says his team have “no more excuses” and does not want this season to be seen as another year of transition.

“This current car is the last car created without a precise wind tunnel plan,” Montezemolo told media at the Circuit de Catalunya.

“It came out of the Toyota tunnel, because ours was not ready, but from now on there will be no more excuses as we finally have an efficient wind tunnel. We are Ferrari, we have been in Formula One since 1950 and we must start winning again.”

The Spanish Grand Prix marks one year since Ferrari’s last race victory. They are currently fourth in the constructors’ championship, a crown they last won in 2008.

It is also the second weekend for the team since the shock resignation of Stefano Domenicali. Montezemolo said the former team principal “unfortunately did not get the satisfaction of achieving the right results, because of the tough nature of all sports, just like when a footballer hits the crossbar instead of scoring a goal”.

The Ferrari president addressed criticism over his choice of replacement. Marco Mattiacci, who has not previously run a racing team.

“Mattiacci has already been with Ferrari for a long while, even if it has been spent outside the sphere of motor sport,” said Montezemolo.

“I chose him, because I wanted to have someone who knows how to manage a group, putting the right people in the right place to do the best job, a competent person with all-round management experience.”

Montezemolo compared Mattiacci’s arrival to the hiring of Jean Todt in 1992. Todt had previously run Peugeot’s successful sports car and rallying programmes.

“When he came, Todt was criticised a lot because he knew nothing about Formula One, but then he managed to do a great job,” said Montezemolo.

“So it’s like going back in time and I am sure that Mattiacci will do a good job, but I want to make it clear this is not a one-man show, but rather a case of injecting the team with determination, rapid decision making and organisational clarity.

“If we have not worked well, then we need to understand why and react. There are still many races remaining and I am convinced we can improve, because I see a team that’s capable of reacting.”

2014 Spanish Grand Prix

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Image © Ferrari/Ercole Colombo

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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32 comments on ““No more excuses” for Ferrari – Montezemolo”

  1. How many times have we heard that one before luca? seems like Deja vu. By the way, why dont Ferrari do a Mercedes and just recruit all the top technical people and spend like crazy?

    1. Ferrari always fire a scapegoat. Aldo Costa, Chris Dyer, and now Stefano Domenicali. Ironic that now Costa is dominating the sport with another team instead.

      1. @kingshark I wouldn’t call incompetency a scapegoat. I’m very surprised they haven’t fired more people or at least poached people from their direct rivals. In the end people do say Ferrari has the money for it but they’ve been far too static over all their shortcomings.

    2. Comparing them to Merc is a bit bad. Merc’s engine department alone has twice the staff that Ferrari have.

      1. Thats the question i am asking. why don’t Ferrari do the same and hire all the top brass engineers.

        1. Mercedes AMG invested heavily for political reason, the mother company Daimler wants desperately to win the championship at all costs to boost their profits, then when they will achieve that no wonder that they will sell the team, it’s already obvious when they sold 10% of the team’s shares to Niki Lauda and 30% to Toto Wolf.
          Ferrari on the other hand has is reporting to FIAT the mother company and cannot spend like Mercedes because F1 for Ferrari is life, they cannot afford to quit the sport or to sell their F1 division

    3. Remember, Ross Brawn was only visiting to see his old buddies at Maranello while on an extended wine country tour. The fact that he’s the architect responsible for Mercedes’ domination this year had *absolutely nothing* to do with it…

      1. as if he was the architect. he didn’t build an engine with 100hp more then Renault and Ferrari. if the engine power was the same in all cars, Mercedes would likely be behind both Red Bull and Ferrari. I don’t see Ferrari getting back winning with the engine development halt in place.

        1. Where did you get your 100bhp figure? But that’s not the point. Ross built the team and the team executed better than every other F1 team. Why is that so difficult to understand?

          1. Agreed ,Force India. Mclaren ,Williams are 1.5sec behind with the same engine .Ross Brawn is a genius but he lost a board room battle or two and gave up fighting

        2. Red Bull beat McLaren with an inferior engine ,Proves Chassis is a BIG BIG part of it

    4. How many times have we heard that one before luca?

      Quite literally, I would actually like to know. I think I’ve heard that word for word just about every year. And every year they don’t find any more pace, but they must be finding excuses at least.

  2. Surely it’s not just me that’s tired of this grumpy old man?

    1. Not me. I think he’s a breath of fresh air in an F1 where we’re surrounded by yes-men.

      1. But what else can he do? he is just as much under pressure to deliver as anyone else in the team.

  3. News just in! There are rumours of a new driver replacing the underperforming Raikkonen in this year’s Ferrari!
    http://goo.gl/EesQLV

    1. LOL Fantastic humour!

  4. Has Matiacci managed to secretly lead a team to wrc championships, a world sportscar championship, le mans victories, dakar victories and pikes peaks victories. Because I dont think so.

    1. Neither did Domenicali.

    2. Funnily enough a guy called Flavio Briatore had also won sod all prior to joining F1 and becoming Benetton team principle. Maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to judge Marco.

      1. @davef1 I think its important to add that not only did Flav have no previous experience in winning grand prix or motor racing anywhere, but he came from the Benetton fashion clothing company and was put in charge of the Benetton F1 team. I think Flav represents all that is greedy about human beings, however, no doubting the fact that he proved you don’t need a motor racing background to succeed in F1…
        Having said all that, it takes a certain someone to do it, because there have been many business people in the past that have owned teams and not succeeded.

    3. If the actual problems are in getting things done in the factory, a guy who is good with getting people to move on what he wants (and it seems that Matiacci does have that) might be the right guy. Strategy on track was not their weakest point in the last years, and they have Allison to better guide the way of the developments (already seems that Ferrari are not in their “test friday then revert to previous solution” rithm anymore)

    4. As any salesman will tell you, it’s not about whether your car actually is the fastest, it’s about creating the perception that it’s the fastest. I’ll be disappointed if Matiacci can’t do this. Although @BasCB might be right too.

  5. We are Ferrari, we have been in Formula One since 1950 and we must start winning again.”

    I guess at least he did not mention that they deserve winning because of that, but really yeah sure Monti. Get it done and be proud or stop saying the same for the last 5 years and failing to act on it.

  6. This headline, could be from any of the last five years press release of Montezemolo.

    LCdM has been there, surrounded by Team Managers without any experience (Domenicali was Manager of a Customer Program before he take the position). Basically he takes a “Mrs. Nobody” and put it as “Yes-man Manager”, to continue doing what he wants but not taking any responsibility. We’ve seen this in Football Presidents so many times, and I never have seen one with success.

    Anyway, I’ll wait to see what happens with Mattiacci. Maybe he is coming not to replace Domenicali but to replace LCdM. We will see looking new incorporations to Ferrari Team.

    It´s Mattiaci trying to hire Ross Braw? Then, two good news:

    1) Ross Brown returning back to Ferrari, will be good for the future of the team.
    2) If so, this mean Mattiacci is performing the same role Jean Tod held in Ferrari, so LCdM will be out of Ferrari business. And that should be great for Ferrari future.

    Unfortunately, I don’t think so. I’m afraid Mr. Mattiacci is another “Domenicali”.

  7. Haha, reading the usual reactions to the site’s rhetorical reports on Ferrari is like a broken record – let’s face it, where would F1 reporters be without di Montezemolo’s unique brand of bravado? Keith wouldn’t have as much to write about, and readers less to moan about. Mattiacci, like anyone new, needs time. You could say the same about Raikkonen (and he has the advantage of being a former Ferrari champion).

    The march has been stolen by Mercedes, so maybe it’s too little too late, but still needs time nonetheless. At least you can expect Ferrari not to give up. And with a head like di Montezemolo they have no choice.

  8. Montezemolo, you are the luckiest man in the world for having Alonso in your team, without him the last three years and this seasson would be a disgrace for ferrari, you would be finishing races between the last 10 every weekend.

    1. This year Ferrari decided to run with its second brand, FIAT, with a fiat cinquecento sporting to be more precise.

    2. “Montezemolo, you are the luckiest man in the world for having Alonso in your team”

      Well Fernando can alway leave if he doesn’t like it at Ferrari.

  9. Unfortunately the rules seem to be working against Ferrari seeing as how Merc haven’t lost too much, have mastered (seemingly) the tires and pumped out a power unit that is unmatched.

    The only way to beat Merc are to take the Red Bull approach, and find loop holes, and ways around things. RISK.

  10. I am nor worried about FA’s future. What I’m saying is that FERRARI is supposed to be the leading manufactor of SPORT cars and they could be ashamed of the last 3 years results. And without FA the damage for brand (Ferrari) could had been far greater.

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