Confident Montezemolo says “Now is time to win”

2014 F1 season

Posted on

| Written by

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo says he has confidence his team can end their six-year wait for a championship in 2014.

“I’m confident because we have a strong team,” said Montezemolo following the launch of the team’s new car, the F14 T. “They think that we have all the ingredients to be a success.”

Kimi Raikkonen has replaced Felipe Massa in the team’s line-up this year and Montezemolo said Ferrari have “two very strong drivers” for the new season.

“I’m please to have Kimi back, I think Kimi has been the last driver to win the championship with us and Fernando [Alonso] has made fantastic season, achieving a second place in the last four years.

“Now is time to win.”

“I have a lot of confidence in the new technical director James Allison and in the work that our people has made in the engine,” Montezemolo added.

“Very complicated engine, very complicated system, and I think that particularly the beginning of this season reliability will be crucial. Whenever we have new rules we have this difficult from the beginning to find out who is competitive and who is less competitive.

“But our goal is to be on the top, this we have to do our best, and I’ve seen all my people very conscious of this, very focalised, and we will approach the first test with all our determination.

“Having said that I think we have to give our drivers not only a competitive car but as a competitive team. Domenicali has changed, has done some innovation in the team. I’m very confident.”

2014 F1 season


Browse all 2014 F1 season articles

Image © Ferrari/Ercole Colombo

Author information

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...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

22 comments on “Confident Montezemolo says “Now is time to win””

  1. I hope you’re right this time. It has taken too long.

    1. He does say it every year, doesn’t he ?

      1. yep every single year since schumacher’s departure…they missed the “real time to fight” it was 2011 and 2012

  2. I have the feeling that it’s going to be another rubbish year for them…

    1. @fer-no65 indeed, the car generally doesn’t look too promising (although the very small air intakes as was pointed out by Scarbs on twitter are interesting – that should reduce drag quite considerably).

    2. Absolutely agreed. I feel like this car is going to follow the first steps of the F2012, but let´s wait to see how the first things of the new rules evolve.

    3. Hope you’re wrong!

  3. With the car so differing in design to the other four launches so far, it appears Ferrari are taking a different approach, especially considering the articles speculating a dispute between the three engine manufacturers on a turbo cover with Ferrari on one side and Merc and Renault on the other. I hope Ferrari start the season at the front competitive and clinch both the titles.

  4. Reading that made me wonder: Allison probably knew most of the design ideas Lotus had for the front of the car, yet this is how the Ferrari turned out. If he weren’t confident in this approach being better he probably wouldn’t have agreed with the rest of the design team to do it this way. Lets see what Newey came up with.
    On the other hand, maybe I’m just trying to talk myself into being positive.

    1. Roger Williams
      25th January 2014, 16:20

      Probably Allison came in too late to redirect Ferrari’s design approcah

    2. I’m really excited for the RB launch :D

    3. Maybe Allison arrived to late and is busy developing an alternative.

  5. I would imagine that failing to win this year would spell the end of Domenicali’s tenure.

  6. Ferrari indeed have got all the ingredients to win. A new wind tunnel, new simulator, two great drivers, a new great technical director etc. Normally i’d say they’re favorites for the championship. But really, they got some extremely strong competition in Mercedes and Redbull, and possibly Mclaren. Ferrari can’t take it easy for 1 moment if they want to win.

  7. The Black/Red….looks like the color scheme Marussia had last year…and the F14T is the first car to have an ugly silhouette even when viewed from the side..

    Williams and the McL looking quite similar and Ferrari and Lotus looking distinctively different. I think, as far as the fronts go, this is the most different looking cars we’ve had for a long time. Now I’m really anxiously awaiting Caterham to deliver on their promises of an “Alien” front and hopeful that Sauber or RB have somehow retained, or hopefully even exaggerated, the slots they had last season.

    The ’14 season will definitely be a new kind of ugly, but here’s hoping for a generation of F1 cars that dont look like an aristocrat family!

    1. here’s hoping for a generation of F1 cars that dont look like an aristocrat family!

      Now THAT is the funniest and yet most sadly accurate description of recent F1 design I’ve heard. Thanks for the laugh. :)

    2. +100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

  8. I have a strange feeling I have heard these words from Luca before…

    1. About every month?

  9. Personally I dislike LDM and Alonso too much to wish them success – but the rest of the team would really deserve some limelight.

  10. Ferrari has been the strongest in reliability, so that could be very helpful this year. Red Bull never had a good KERS unit, and engine issues, and many of their advantages have been removed, such as exhaust positioning, so I’d be optimistic if I were a Ferrari fan.

  11. Great, good luck to Ferrari… but having 2 of the best 4-5 drivers on the grid on their side, doesn’t mean they’re good to win if the car is not up in front too. 2013 is the best example. Even if Kimi would have been in Massa’ seat and he would have had gained the same amount of points as Alonso… even so, Ferrari wouldn’t have won the WCC. No discussion about the WDC since things were more than obvious.

Comments are closed.