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
2010 Japanese Grand Prix
Gill
9th October 2010, 11:13
Taliban recently burnt a NATO ammmu. truck , i think this is where these Italian soldiers died.
A good gesture nontheless.
Fixy (@)
9th October 2010, 15:50
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.
David Smith
9th October 2010, 11:42
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
Hamish
9th October 2010, 12:46
Tad insensitive to sell it given the reason.
SparkyJ23 (@sparkyj23)
9th October 2010, 13:20
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
infy (@infy)
9th October 2010, 20:39
And 9/11 was nothing compared to the deaths incurred by innocent Iraqi’s when they were attacked by the US.
Mike
10th October 2010, 10:00
And when the plutonians attack earth…. wait…. No….
KW
9th October 2010, 15:20
Any picture of the Ferrari?
Fixy (@)
9th October 2010, 15:54
Not yet, it will be used tomorrow as today they have ran before the attack happened.
robbertmd
9th October 2010, 16:11
It’s just the black band around the Italian flag:
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/9918/ferraril.jpg
David-A (@david-a)
9th October 2010, 16:21
That is so noticeable when they’re doing 200mph through 130R!
Cacarella
10th October 2010, 0:08
looks almost like Tommy Hilfiger sponsorship.
(no disrespect intended)
Alex Bkk (@alex-bkk)
9th October 2010, 15:39
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.
Soumya Banerjee
9th October 2010, 15:56
How do you know what Luca thinks?
Alex Bkk (@alex-bkk)
9th October 2010, 16:25
I’ll simply say that I do.*
RioF
9th October 2010, 17:14
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…
RioF
9th October 2010, 17:16
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.
Hare (@hare)
9th October 2010, 22:51
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.
beneboy (@beneboy)
10th October 2010, 3:29
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
rampante (@rampante)
9th October 2010, 16:33
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.
BasCB
9th October 2010, 17:25
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.
steph
9th October 2010, 22:12
Any mark of respect for the loss of life in Afghanistan is welcomed by me.
James_mc
9th October 2010, 19:15
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. :-(
David-A (@david-a)
9th October 2010, 22:15
Although it’s far more subtle than the Monza 2001 or Bahrain 2005 livery it’s a nice gesture to pay their respects IMO.
MuzzleFlash
10th October 2010, 2:03
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.
Monad
10th October 2010, 1:11
How about not sending them to get killed instead of wearing stupid armbands.
Stathis
10th October 2010, 4:06
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.
Bob
10th October 2010, 8:49
Actually the correct answer to why, is “I don’t know”, which is Alonso’s answer when Mark asked him.
PT
11th October 2010, 20:57
Actually, I think I heard Alonso responding to Webber’s question by saying,”…some Italian…”
gabal
10th October 2010, 8:53
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…