If Montezemolo is that offended by ‘slow’ cars, why didn’t he complain in 2006?

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Fernando Alonso may have come to terms with missing out on a win in Canada but Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo isn’t quite so sanguine.

And he’s taken aim at his favourite target – the new teams – telling La Gazetta dello Sport:

Cars who perform at GP2-level should not be allowed to participate in F1 races because they are supposed to race on Sunday mornings.
Luca di Montezemolo

He added:

Our car’s race pace was good enough for victory [in Canada]. Let’s hope that, in the future, there won’t be mistakes in pushing a button nor in lapping cars that put us at a disadvantage, because we’ve already gone though that.
Luca di Montezemolo

By “mistakes in pushing a button” he’s possibly referring to a perceived delay in backmarkers being shown blue flags, which is partly handled by an electronic system.

Montezemolo’s grudge against F1’s three new teams has been documented here twice before.

And I’ve explained before why Montezemolo is wrong to argue for three-car teams (his preferred alternative to the new teams), that F1 racers already have it much easier than drivers in other series when it comes to lapping backmarkers and why a revival of the 107% rule isn’t needed.

So, as some people asked in the fourm, why bother commenting on this again?

Because Montezemolo’s latest assertions are wildly wrong. The new teams have improved so much since the start of the season that his case against them is redundant.

At Canada Lotus cut their performance deficit to the fastest team to a new low of 4.17%. For the first time, their best lap of the weekend was within 1% of the midfield runners.

Heikki Kovalainen qualified just 0.2 seconds behind Kamui Kobayashi’s Ferrari-powered Sauber. Four of the other new cars (aside from Karun Chandhok’s hobbled HRT) were within 1.4 seconds.

Kovalainen was 2.3 seconds slower than the fastest car in Q1 on Sunday. Go back to the same race four years ago and the two Super Aguris were 3.7 seconds off the pace. Yet Montezemolo didn’t get quite so worked up about them.

Why? Because he wasn’t pushing his dream of a three-car Ferrari team back then: an idea which is not popular among the other teams nor with the majority of fans.

On top of that, while complaining about how hard done-by he thinks Alonso was, he does a disservice to his other driver. Montezemolo overlooked the brilliant, opportunistic pass Felipe Massa put on Adrian Sutil while the Force India driver was preoccupied with a backmarker.

That is part and parcel of racing. The president of a company who are rightly proud of their tradition of motor sport should not need that explaining to him.

Ferrari, new teams and three car teams

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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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117 comments on “If Montezemolo is that offended by ‘slow’ cars, why didn’t he complain in 2006?”

  1. how do you spell nineteen-ninety-three in Italian?..or “hypocrisy” for that matter

    1. Or Jerez, for that matter!
      Remember what pressure a Ferrari powered backmarker put on Villeneuve before while lapping? Of course, what happened a little later that afternoon was second to nothing!

      Selective memory Luca!

    2. I wholeheartedly agree! Back in ’93 the Ferraris were actually slower (per sec per lap) than any of the new teams are this year.

      Hypocrisy indeed.

      1. Really don’t have to look that far. Luca Badoer anyone? The let him race twice each time starting at the very back of the grid almost 2-3 second slow qualifying then fastest car and a good half a second slower then the second slowest car. But I guess that is ok for them but not for another team since they are the mighty red and everyone should bow to their wishes. Also they complained about not being allowed replacement driver to test extra while teams like Torro Ross and Renault didn’t as far as I know at least even ask for this when they replaced drivers (granted their drivers where fired and Ferraris had a horrible accident).

        Sick and tired of Montezemolo whining on the slower teams (one of them are at the very tail of Torro Rosso a team whom is a customer of Ferrari if he continue this Torro Rosso should start take offense when the Lotus’s starts fighting the TR’s for grid position and position in the race on a frequent basis).
        Once I used to like the Red’s but now I don’t understand why. There is only one team on the grid I like less and that is McLaren with all their lying, cheating and the like. Someone please put a gag on Montezemolo, enuff already.

    3. Probably the same way you spell ‘retirement’

    4. I read Luca di Montezemolo’s comments like this :

      “WHy are we not winning every race? Why why why??! We need more Ferraris on the track so we get more publicity for putting Rossi in a car, and then we can look like god’s amongst men (again). Also : we need to sell more Ferrari’s!”

      The next comment will probably read like this:

      “Why are McLaren in the way, who do they think they are, silver is a stupid colour to have on a car. Speaking of which, Red Bull shouldn’t be allowed the word RED, as we are red!”

      1. “WHy are we not winning every race? Why why why??!

        haha

        1. Classic Hare… but you forgot the point in the scenario where he puts both hands on the mahogany desk in his musky office, grabs a bohemian crystal ashtray with the Prancing horse encrusted within it and hurls it at his “Whoever sponsors the Ferrari team” 52 inch LED TV screen.
          and shouts once more WHY????

      2. LOL absolute class Hare. LMAO all the way :)))

      3. ” Red Bull shouldn’t be allowed the word RED, as we are red!”

        muahahaha xDDDD

    5. Millenovecentonovantatre
      1993

  2. I suspect the only thing in F1 that’s too slow is Luca di Montezemolo’s wit.

    1. Nomination for Comment Of The Year award!

    2. Dear Luca di Montezemolo,
      Would you like some cheese with that whine?
      Yours Kindly,
      Hare

  3. I second pretty much everything Scribe said in the forum. Only very recently did the field start qualifying very close, it was not long ago that we had Minardis and Jordans qualifying in the lower places some 4 seconds slower than the top of the field. There will always be small teams. Minardi never really had a chance to become a top team, and nobody had a go at them, and it’s not like the new teams and the other backmarkers through the years were not trying. It has always been like this: there are some established teams, many new ones appear, they try to get to the top, the vast majority don’t make it, and even the few that make it end up being dragged down again sooner or later.

    These comments are becoming annoying because it is always the same argument, and not even a valid one in my opinion (and many other fans’). I understand rampante’s point that he only gets picked up for the negative comments, but if they’re always the same unfair rants, I think that says it.

    1. Minardi are still racing as Torro Rosso

  4. As I said in the forum I’m not his biggest fan but he like all of us has an opinion. Bernie saved F1 and turned it into what is is today but while I can’t agree with most of what he does he has a right to say it also.
    Most people on this site think that Bernie, Montezemolo, Max etc are all idiots and incapable of managing ‘our’ sport. We don’t have to agree with any of them and they may be many things but stupid is not one of them.

    1. They are definitely not stupid, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be misguided. They all seem to be caught up more in the political show than the sporting side.

    2. While I agree that Ecclestone, Montezemolo and Mosley are not idiots it does not stop them making idiotic comments.

    3. I am pretty sure non of them are idiots, on the second point i find it harder to judge.

      Eccelstone did do a lot of good to make the sport earn money. He also filled his own coffers most of all. And some ideas he focalizes are pretty nutbag. But with him you always have the feeling he is making fun of you or just finding a way to earn even more.

      Mosley did a lot to pick up on the safety issues after Senna’s death and he did a lot to make the sport more professional. But his power politics and backroom dealmaking were getting from bad to worse and the fact a lot of people in F1 were afraid to say anything for getting punishes somehow tells us why we can be happy he is not active any more.

      As for Luca di Montezemelo, his tribute to the sport is in having Ferrari continue in their great tradition. Making the team succesfull again with Schumi/Todt/Brawn/Bryne and not letting off. Also a great thank you for being pivottal in getting FOTA together and ousting Mosley.

      But these rants with always the same arguments only make him look silly to a large number of watchers.

      Alonso did very well, to state that after 2 days he is pretty happy with the results of the race and continue to say that you just sometimes get lucky with backmarkers and sometimes it hurts you.
      Montezemelo should help the Ferrari team focus on looking at learning where to improve as well or risk of making many people feel he would do better to follow Mad Max into retirement.

    4. I don’t believe that many of us ever made out
      that Ecclestone is or was stupid. He’s a
      cold-blooded business man…’coin operated’
      as one of us memorably put it. He and
      Mosley created the world of F1 that we know
      today and though both of them are clearly
      past their ‘sell-by’ dates, the things they
      achieved were simply amazing.

      But, IMO, Montezemolo is not in the same
      league. He appears to be presiding over a serious decline in the fortunes of the most
      famous marque in F1 history. That is not a
      good record to have attached to your name.
      You’d think, if he had any nous at all he’d
      keep his head down, his mouth shut and
      drive the team back to the top.

      How an allegedly intelligent man can’t see
      the irreparable harm he’s doing to
      Ferrari’s reputation by his pathetic
      whinging is simply beyond belief.

      1. He’s been at Ferrari since 1972. A lot has happened since then

        1. It seems like the Schumacher years ‘spoiled’ Di Montezemolo, and now he cannot take the team being off the front and off the pace (although of course in Canada they made a good leap forwards).

          To answer Keith’s question at the top of the page, I think it is simply that in 2006 they were in the title race, and there was no need to complain about the injustices Ferrari suffered – except of course for the perceived one inflicted by Renault at Monza which nobody other than the stewards agreed with – because they were competitive.

          I’ve said it before, but Ferrari are shaking off the perception many held – rightly or wrongly – of being the favoured team by the FIA and being able to pull strings to gain an advantage, but Di Montezemolo seems to be finding it hard to take that they are just one of the teams (although with the most famous name) on a level with all these upstarts and riff-raff.

  5. Its all very well saying Alonso’s race pace was good enough for victory in Canada but F1 isn’t just a time trial drivers are supposed to do things such as overtake as well, it is all part of racing.

    We have often heard how a team decided to bring in their driver early so as to avoid traffic, either slow cars they were due to encounter if they stayed out or to make sure they left the pits to rejoin the race on an empty bit of track.

    Red Bull said that what helped the drivers who started on soft tyres and pitted early was that drivers who started on the harder tyres also stopped early so they were not held up and had a clear track.

    The way F1 is at the moment a driver will never go flat out for the entire race they will no doubt try to look after their tyres, engines or gearboxes or conserve fuel at some point during the race so I don’t even think it is a valid argument to say that Alonso would have won without the backmarkers.

    We saw that when Button got second and started to close on Hamilton late in the race Hamilton just put in a fastest lap as a response to show he had plenty in reserve.

  6. Will he give it a rest, we know he doesn’t like the new teams. He should stop repeating himself now.

    1. Elvis Barnet
      17th June 2010, 17:59

      What’s worse, repeating oneself or repeating what others have said?

  7. Marc Connell
    17th June 2010, 17:39

    Tbh i bet the new teams have brought more development to there cars than ferrari. He might be scared that someone like HRT will start gaining more points than them.

    1. and senna performing at a higher level than his two drivers. Not very far from reality.
      He is a political animal, after a three car team. He’ll keep talking nonsense, until he either gets what he wants, or realizes the posibility is not there anymore.

  8. Montezemolo is a poisonous character.F1 doesnt stand for (Ferrari 1). This guy seems to be against any new initiative in F1. He doesnt care one bit about the spectacle of F1 racing.When do we hear C Horner, R Brawn,M Whitmarsh or F Williams coming out with such drivel.Anything that doesnt suit Ferrari he will complain about..Max had this guy down to a tee..a member of the “Loonies”..F1 needs a full grid..It doesnt need the F1 of the early 2000’s Ferrari dominance..Just shud up Luca!!

  9. Let them run the third car but require that the driver can only take part in three races and do not permit it to gain constructors points.

    1. Each driver, I am assuming more than one driver.

    2. But how to punish the guy taking out a front runner or holding one up on track to enable one of the drivers in their 1st and 2nd car to get/stay in front?

  10. he is always against new teams,keep poking around even his comments do not make any impression on new teams.

  11. He keeps banging on new teams being too slow so I’ll just reuse my argument from earlier backmaker debates – after putting Luca Badoer in a car Ferrari really shouldn’t argue about slowness of others…

    1. Haha, good point! Very hypocritical

      1. Badoer was 2.8s off in Q1 at Valencia ’09

        1. So he was pretty much on par with the new teams!

          The argument about the new teams being too slow or making too much crowded qualifying sessions is just nonsense.
          We had exactly the same number of teams/cars years ago and the time difference from 1st to 6th could be over 3 seconds, not to mention the 10 second difference to the backmarkers.
          And yes, they did have a hour long period, but front runners only started running in the last 15-25 minutes when the track was rubbered in properly.

    2. jsw11984 (@jarred-walmsley)
      18th June 2010, 11:51

      I really want a journalist to put this question to Luca (DeMontezemelo) and see what his response is, i’m willing to bet it will go something like this.

      “Well, it was not the cars fault, Luca (Badoer) was just out of practice”

      Well, I’m sorry but if he tried that then it is bull****, if your driver is that crap, then what is he doing in F1 in the first place, at least the new teams have decent drivers that are putting the car on the limit and developing the car constantly to improve it and they are adding value.

      As, has been mentioned above if you can’t get a Ferrari past a Virgin or an HRT , (Lotus i’d put on par with Torro Rosso now simply because they LAPPED the other new teams, surely that must show just how good Lotus is)then what are you doing in F1, seriously even with overtaking being hard overtaking a “GP2” car in a Ferrari should not be hard to do.

      Luca knows his team suck this year and he is trying like mad to bring up all sorts of things to distract from Ferrari’s crap perfomance

  12. It seems to me that this Ferrari team is made out of “crying babies” who blame everyone and everything but themselves!
    They dont know how to loose!!! Especially Alonco! Just like in 2007 when he was outpaced and outclassed by rookie Hamilton!!
    Give them one or two races like Indianapolis 2005 to get their spirits up!! Who knows maybe they can race against a Lotus or a Toro Rosso! :)

    1. Well firstly, i can understand Lewis being upset during the race. Alonso would have been perfectly fine to have said something alike.

      But Alonso did not say anything overtly critical after the race. Even in the press conference he only said to be disappointed he lost out from that on 2 occasions, but he gained at other races, so no big deal.
      He even issued a further statement 2 days after the GP, saying he is not upset by those guys being in his way at the wrong moment for him and repreats, that he has profitted in other races, hey that’s part of racing.

      This rant by an official comes after that and ignores what his own top driver and team manager said about the situation and makes it a farce only for political reasons.

  13. If you review Mclaren’s web site you will see where Lewis was frustrated by slower cars, screaming “blue flags!”. So Ferrari had no manoply in manouvering through slow traffic they just could not get through it as well as some of the other teams.
    If you watch the replay of Buemi on his in lap you will see that Lewis was behind him on the racing line while Fred was on the dirty inside with no where to go. Buemi had no choice since he was pitting and Hamilton was not giving up the line. People, that’s racing. And by the way Buemi was in the lead when he entered the pits.

    1. What a driver screams in frustration into their team radio is quite different to what their team boss releases to the press.

  14. How come lapped cars are not always shown a blue flag when the leading, faster cars are approaching them?

    Who decides to show a car the blue flag? Is it under human or software control?

    I had the impression from the bit of live commentary on the McLaren site during the race, that McLaren asked race control for blue flags to be shown to the lapped cars in front of them as they were catching them. Unfortunately the commentary is no longer on the site, so I don’t know if I just imagined this!

    1. You didn’t imagine it. Lewis asked the pit wall for blue flags.

    2. It seems the marshals in Canada were not making the best job of it.
      Sutil had an argument about it with Vettel complaining to him after the race (he did not get that it was a Red Bull, as they are nearly identical from view with a STR car he was fighting at that time).
      Sutil claims he could not go with the blue flags, as he was showed a blue flag for a complete lap when racing for position with another car.

    3. Unfortunately the commentary is no longer on the site

      Yes it is: http://mclaren.com/2010/canadian-gp/post-race

      1. Oh thanks, I missed that they archived it.

  15. Montezemolo is just complaining again to detract from the fact that Ferrari are not dominant, as he usually does. This year he has complained about just about every team at one time or another. About the only team I don’t think he has moaned about is Sauber… and perhaps it’s just a coincidence that they have Ferrari engines…

    As for cars being 2 to 3 seconds off the pace not being allowed to start…. because that’s effectively what he is saying. Over the years Ferrari have been MUCH more off the pace than that whilst Montezemolo has been involved and I never heard him suggesting that his Ferrari’s shouldn’t start because they are too slow…… He is just a joke and just brings disrespect Ferrari which after all is a truly great team despite Montezemolo’s ridiculous words.

  16. simple, Ferrari were winning back then!

  17. What gets me is that Luca di Montezemolo is very keen to provide engines to the new US “Viper” Team next year. Does he expect this team to be quick out of the blocks just because of his engines? Or perhaps Nicolas Todt will try and strike a deal with Ferrari should his bid with the GP2 team ART be succesful.

    The new teams are not doing all that bad, as Keith has shown with very solid figures on this website. Their rate of development has been very impressive. They’ve all managed to find a lot of lap time in the space of 8 races. Perhaps with in season testing they’ll be closer still, theoretically anyway. Luca di Montezemolo should be praising the new teams for their development rate, for participating when they’ve no realistic chance of scoring points and most importantly making sure our F1 grid is full and diverse.

    At the end of the day, I dont think Luca di Montezemolo can use the new teams as an excuse for Alonso being passed by Lewis and Jenson. I reckon they would have caught Alonso anyway. The Mclaren at Montreal was the best car. I’m sure come Valencia Luca will stop spitting his dummy out, if Ferrari’s upgrade package is any good…

  18. Well, Montezemolo is wildly wrong also when he insists in that rubbish that Ferrari had pace to win the race in Canada.
    Keith has been spot-on showing how the new teams have been improving, but in any case put me in the group of fans who screams “eliminate the blue flags a.s.a.p.!”

  19. No one likes a bully. Can it Luca.

  20. Montezemolo is an idiot, he’s always complaining if anything happens in F1 to negutively effect Ferrari, such a cry baby, he thinks the Ferrari F1 team is bigger than F1 itself.

    1. Why would’t Luca think that? Everyone in F1 knows how important Ferrai is to the sport. Being Stateside, that is the only team anyone might know about over here. Look at the stands during a race and what color do you see more than any other? Ferrari brings in a lot of money to the sport and the FIA and FOM both encourage that line of thinking.

    2. The problem is – the FIA thinks, or thought, that too when Ferrari were given a veto on the rules.
      I think Montezemelo is wrong on this though. We dont want the big teams fielding three teams and three Ferrari drivers not racing each other to the chequered flag.

  21. Remember at the start of this year he was taking credit for Michael Schumacher’s comeback, by wetting his appetite for racing by giving him the test last year after Felipe’s accident. Maybe he did but talking to the public about it is just patting himself on the back, he’s a bit pathetic really

    1. I think he was taking the blame.

      1. Lol. I do have to thank Luca for that, as I am thoroughly enjoying Schumi make an ass of himself this year.

  22. “Viper” Team?? Where did you see that? Or was this a name you coined? Whatever the case, it has nice ring to it.

    And on Topic yes, Monte likes to talk to italian media, and when he talks he does not say things that are “politically correct”, Often deflecting from the real problem that his team is not the fastest on the Grid to place blame on others as some have said.

    But what can you expect him to do? Concede that his team is not fast? Surely his Italian pride does not allow him to do that.

  23. I must have missed something, but why the reference to 2006 in particular?

    1. I believe because the Super Aguris, being reworked 2002 Arrows cars, were quite a lot off the pace. I think it’s quite a good recent comparison to make.

    2. Fourth paragraph from the end.

      1. Thanks. Funny, I didn’t see 2006 as particularly comparable because Super Aguri was the only new start-almost-from-scratch team. With today’s three new teams making up a quarter of the grid, we see a much higher proportion of cars that have started the season well back of the pace.

  24. I didn’t spot Ferrari complaining about slow backmarkers getting in the way in the Italian grand prix of 1988, or the 1989 hungarian grand prix, among many examples.

  25. While normally I wouldn’t consider this a comment from Ferrari as a whole, but it’s not just Luca in that team that moans wildly to the media.

  26. At least none ask Lotus to block Alonso as Ferrari did with Sauber some centuries ago:

    http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8oalf_fontana-blocking-villeneuve_auto

    1. Becken you are a cynical chap.

    2. I forgot about that clip. It was on of my favourites in my Schumi’s winning tactics compilation.

  27. There is a fair way to allow Ferrari or any other team to run a third car – by awarding points to only the first and third cars. So if their cars finished 1-2-3, they would receive team points for first and third only. If their cars finished 1-2-11, they would only receive points for the first car. It seems like a severe handicap, but running three cars gives them other advantages that have already been pointed out.

    1. I was in favour of a similar idea (and I think yours is better than only the first two finishing cars), but there’s still the same problem: what if the 2nd-placed car “accidentally” takes out a rival for the race win?

      1. And what would happen if the third car happened to be in front of one of the team’s main rivals and just happened to hold them up . . .
        No, three car teams are not the way forward. But I really do not blame Luca for arguing for them. It would be the easiest way for the richer teams to make sure the less well off teams never stand a chance. And as Keith points out, that’s why Luca is criticising the new teams.
        He’s a business man, he’s arguing his corner. We shouldn’t be surprised

  28. The F Duct (@)
    17th June 2010, 18:59

    He kept schtum when Luca Badoer was trundling round at the back of the grid last year.

  29. Could it be that Luca wants the Bernie money a third car would bring. In his view the new teams gets money that Ferrari could have.

  30. I can’t keep but thinking whether this “slay all backmarkers” nonsense may be another wild publicity stunt, like the cigarette thing..however, I can hardly see what all this embargo could ever advertise and bring into light..

  31. This is probably just to help Alonso keep a strong psyche and remind others that the brand he represents were just two minor incidents away from race victory, simples to be honest

  32. I anticipated publicly 2 days ago that Lou would rant about this issue. Every time he has a bad digestion he rants and raves about something.
    Lou diMonty is frustrated because he cannot win anymore by politics and spending money.

    1. I did think about your post when i saw the link to this rant. Are your GP predictions as reliable? :-D

      1. No, I always get them wrong ! I even thought that we would be commenting on a new series by now

  33. This coming from a guy who was happy top see one of his cars crawl around the circuit to stop a rival team from having a chance at winning a race on pace.

  34. Luca has issues. Does he remember where RedBull was 3 yrs ago? Look at them now. Ferrari can’t keep up with them. Give the new teams a chance. It’s good for the sport.

  35. Sudden thought. Didn’t Luca start this three car team argument last year when there was a lot of speculation that Ferrari had signed Massa, Raikonen and Alonso for 2010?
    You don’t think he’s re-signed Massa, Alonso and signed someone like Kubica as well and is deperate for a third car for them to sit in, do you?

    1. no, the third car would be for Valentino Rossi, as Luca continously says (last time was just after Rossi’s leg injury at Mugello).
      It would be a great marketing move, just that. Rossi seems to be good on a F1 but he has a lot to do before he can really compete with the best drivers.

      1. Aha. Yes, you’re right. Luca wants two regular, top-flight drivers, plus his ‘marketing tool’ in the team.

  36. Oh this is just typical Montezemelo. Perhaps he should consider that pretty much throughout F1 history, the backmarkers have been slower than they are today. And blue flags, forget it.

    Classic Ferrari arrogance. Really gets me going!

  37. You can say whatever you want but I still don’t see the reason for Hispania to be there. They get lapped multiple times every race and in my opinion just put themselves to shame. For me they are just moving obstacles on the track.

    I’ve got nothing against Lotus and Virgin though, I’m sure they will be as good even better as Force India one day.

    1. HRT have narrowed the gap to Virgin and are increasingly on a par with them. They’re making progress.

      1. If you say so :)
        Let’s wait and see. All the best to them. The more competitiveness we see the better.

        1. It isn’t just Keith that says so – the times show they are closer to the rest of the field by the race. At the start of the season Chandhok was doing qualifying and practice times over 10 seconds slower than the midfield, and as is mentioned elsewhere on the site today Delatraz used to do that during races…

          Far from putting themselves to shame, HRT have managed to put together two cars in a matter of weeks and get double-finishes on more than one occasion; while Williams, Sauber and Ferrari to varying extents have underperformed compared to expectations and are the ones I imagine feel bad about their performances right now.

      2. Very true, and HRT are ahead of Virgin in the standings too. There have always been slow cars, getting lapped multiple times, year after year even. This is only their first season, racing cars designed and built in a very limited time.

        I think it would have been more clever for the FIA to have made the entries for 2011 instead, giving the new teams a year to prepare, like Toyota did before their debut.

        Same with this tire manufacturer issue. They can’t delay it for another year of course, but I’m getting the same feeling that it’s getting left until too late, with too little time for proper development.

        1. Personally, I think Chandok has been one of the stand out drivers this year. He is doing a great job in that car, which to be fair he had never sat in until quali in Bahrain, and more often than not beating the famous name in the garage next him.

          1. Actually I’d say Senna’s got him beat so far, though their various car problems make it difficult to judge: Karun Chandhok vs team mate, 2010

  38. Why go as far back as 2006? Why no question why Montezemolo didn’t pull his second car back when he couldn’t find a driver that could do acceptable lap times in 2009?

  39. Do Ferrari still get a bigger percentage of the “pot”?
    Is monty worried about justifying that, if Ferrari are not at the top? 4th in the table last year, maybe 3rd this year?

  40. For someone who has been so outspoken against polemics (to use one of his favorite words) in F1 over the last couple of years, Montezemolo seems to be blind to the fact that he has been one of the biggest participants. I doubt that the other teams, large or small, are losing any sleep over his rants. Personally, I’m enjoying the larger grid. The new teams provide a lot of additional interest to the show, and (as stated a million times before) even the Great Ferrari had to start somewhere.

  41. Ah, I just look at this as all part of the rich tapestry of F1 life. Now that Flav & S&Max are gone, its left up to Luca Di Monty to make all the outrageous comments. It’s a tough gig they’ve left him, so don’t be too harsh ;)

    1. Well put. Looking at it from that angle, perhaps Monty is simply trying to fill the void left by those two pretty impressive off the wall quote machines. Just doing his bit to keep F1 in the headlines, and the forums buzzing. That said, he’s still a crybaby! :)

  42. i get what luca is wanting to say. i do not like the guy nor do i agree with what he is saying. the fact is that since ferrari were 3 seconds off the outright pace in 1993, formula one has changed a huge deal in terms of closeness. it was only in 2008/2009 that the gap between 1st and last decreased from 3 seconds per lap to about 1.5 seconds…so really, lotus et al are doing a solid job. if it was in 2006 (using the example given) then they would have picked up the odd point with toro roos with then line-up liuzzi and speed. i feel all teams have to begin somewhere and feel luca should see this- after all, ferrari were a new team once….long ago

  43. Luca is hitting out against the new teams because Ferrari see them as Mosley’s legacy, which Ferrari fought hard to exorcise from the sport.

    He’s also frustrated that Ferrari isn’t winning everything. This was supposed to be their year – they ended development of the F60 early to concentrate on the 2010 car, they signed Alonso, they got Massa back and they blitzed the pre-season test sessions. But so far, they’ve been dominated by the Red Bulls and the McLarens; they may have won in Bahrain, but Ferrari knew they wouldn’t have beaten Vettel if Vettel’s car had stayed in one piece.

    As such, Luca is hitting out at the new teams because they’re an easy target. It’s ironic that he should describe them as “slow” given what Ferrari have produced this season (while not as bad as the F60, the F10 is slow by Ferrari’s standards). To make it more unfair on the new teams, it’s just idle frustration – what does Luca think is going to happen? The FIA isn’t going to suddenly boot them from the sport because Ferrari don’t like them. Lotus in particular is zeroing in on the established teams, and hopefully by the end of the season, Virgin and Hispania will have done so, too.

    But if Fernando Alonso can’t pass a car that’s four seconds a lap slower than he is, then the question has to be asked: what the hell is he doing in Formula 1?

    1. Also, has anyone noticed that “I got caught in traffic” seems to be Alonso’s favourite excuse for a bad run?

    2. he CAN and DID. just bad luch caused him to catch them in an acceleration zone. i agree alonso should shut up bitching but on this occasion he was just plain unlucky. he didnt anticipate the virgin to have so much less grip than he had. he should have dealt with it better but he wasnt given the best chance…

      1. Oh, I don’t mean he’s always making excues. It’s just that he sometimes does. I’m reminded of hat Top Gear episode where they were testing $10,000 supercars and Hammond had a bad run, prompting Clarkson to ask “How long before Hammond blames a misfire?”

  44. Luca moans about backmarkers. I shall quote Anthony Davidson on this – “go to Le Mans, see what we cope with, cars 30 seconds or more a lap slower than us, then come back and moan about backmarkers in F1. Go on, try it.”

  45. There is nothing wrong to show the pride of what your team have achieved in F1 but to criticize other team for not going faster is wrong. He should help them other then making comment that they shouldn’t be in F1. If he is so desperate to remove them then bring back the 107% qualifying rules, & I personally think that the three cars rule is a complete bonkers.

    1. Prisoner Monkeys
      18th June 2010, 7:10

      Luca’s idea of helping them is allowing them to run a third Ferrari under their name – which will therefore indebt them to Maranello, as any success will be a product of the chassis they run. Ferrari will then have power over them, with the teams being obligated to agree with Ferrari on any political decision (ie rule changes) on pain of losing Ferrari support, and with it, their success. Luca essentially wants to play God.

  46. This article is base dont he best lap times. The acutal lap Alonso got held up on by trulli is telling. Alonso just lapped in a 1.19.. and trulli was lapping in 1.24… This is the best part of 5 secs. The reason it is an issue because ferrari speaks up. If hamilton was held up like that he would have been furious as button would have been.

    My personal oppionion is the new teams have done nothing for the sport and I dont believe they will do anything. If Toyota couldn’t manage it with there resources these teams have no chance.

    1. Alonso just lapped in a 1.19.. and trulli was lapping in 1.24… This is the best part of 5 secs.

      Trulli didn’t hold him up for an entire lap. Alonso lost a bit of time in one corner.

      It’s hard to say exactly how much time he lost because he was on an in-lap, and comparisons with his other in-lap are meaningless because he spent that one queued up behind Hamilton and Vettel.

      What we do know is that even with the delay Alonso’s in-lap plus pit stop time on that occasion was the fastest of any of the Ferraris’ five stops in the race by 1.8 seconds.

      Data here: Alonso blames traffic for losing first and second places (Ferrari race review)

  47. Haggis Hunter
    18th June 2010, 8:20

    altogether now . . . . ERSE!!!

  48. Just give Luca what he wants.
    3 McLarens to get around
    3 Red Bulls to get around
    3 Mercedes to to get around
    3 Renaults to get around
    3 Force India’s to get around
    3 Williams to get around and so on and so forth…
    I’m sure that will make him much happier. :P

  49. Joking and laughing about Monti’s wit aside, the three car team approach he speaks of is a bit weird.

    Pierro Ferrari mentioned it once in an interview and it made more sense the way he put it. and i have to agree cause ultimately, it puts better cars on the whole grid even if they are one year old.

    instead of doing a 3 car racing team, the 3 new teams should have been able to purchase the rights to use any other older car that is available. perhaps HRT want to buy the old Renault’s (brought up to scratch of course) Lotus the older McLaren chassi and develop their own aero bits from there.

    Lotus can put a cosworth on a Mclaren chassis, that sort of thing. not sure why the FIA didt accept customer cars.

    instead of a new team having to bare the cost of a whole car, they will just have to develop it, and evolve through the year and year on year… don’t see anything wrong with that. unless everyone wants to be champion, and that will never happen someone has to paly second fiddle.. or third, or 20th

  50. Luca is right. You can’t have GP2 teams in Formula 1, and surely not with a test ban.

  51. Nice one. I’ll spare you my usual Ferrari rant lol…

  52. Great article Kieth, but remember back in 2006 jean Todt was in charge of ferrari not montezemolo.

    1. Prisoner Monkeys
      19th June 2010, 11:59

      Luca still isn’t – Stefano Domenicalli runs the team. Luca is essentially Domenicalli’s boss, and in 2006, he was Todt’s.

  53. To answer the question, Luca had probably been relieved that the slow cars he’d been complaining about in 2004 and 2005 had gone/been bought out/otherwise no longer slow and that he should lay off the complaining lest he be seen as the boy who cried wolf. He never stopped wanting a third car, but in 2006 there was no way it was going to happen – Super Aguri’s ability to get the previous year’s Honda once the works team had finished with it meant that it was only ever going to be in the way for a limited time. In 2007 Super Aguri were quite a lot faster and by the time it was realised they were slow again in 2008 they’d gone.

    While I believe the complaining derives from Luca wanting three cars and seeing slow cars as easy targets, I see no hypocrisy in the pattern of complaining he’s employed. Just standard psuedopolitics.

  54. I read a thinly veiled dig at Alonso for allegedly losing the race by fumbling through traffic. Alonso does not like this sort of thing and Luca better watch his mouth or his golden boy will bounce—and “Santander” will look very nice on the engine cover of a RedBull or Mercedes.

  55. why do i have a vision of the Duracell bunny in my head?

  56. It seems the Italian media have been digging into the reasons for Montezemelo pushing for more Ferrari cars on the grid and they have come up with this:

    http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2010/06/23/why-montezemolo-wants-a-third-car/

    Do any of the Italian posters here have anything more on this?

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