Luca di Montezemolo says Ferrari sacrificed pace to maintain harmony in Formula 1 – Formula 1 news
Luca di Montezemolo believes Ferrari sacrificed pace in order to retain harmony in Formula 1.
The 2011 season saw a controversial blown diffuser design which allowed driver to use it even when they were off throttle. The FIA deemed it illegal and banned it.
Later FIA realising that banning it mid-season can cause complexities for the teams announced that if the teams agree to reverse the ban it FIA would allow it for this season. All the teams agreed to reverse the ban barring Ferrari and Sauber.
After Fernando Alonso won the Grand Prix at Silverstone, Ferrari and Sauber also agreed to reverse the ban.
Montezemolo has been very critical of the situation and has said that they sacrificed their pace to accommodate harmony within Formula 1. Ferrari left Formula One Teams’ Association following the 2011 season. They gave a statement of the reasons behind their
decision and Montezemolo added that its incidents like Silverstone that has caused them to pull out of FOTA.
Ferrari has also maintained that they are still very much into cost control and are willing to work with F1 in this aspect.
“Situations like the one in Silverstone must not happen again, when the rules changed three times over the course of a grand prix weekend,” Montezemolo said.
“On that occasion, Ferrari decided to sacrifice its own interests to avoid a fall out that would have damaged Formula One, with all the accompanying comments that we did not want the agreement because we were not competitive…However, there were some who
preferred to only think of their own interests.”
“We have left FOTA of our own accord and without consulting anyone else, because we were tired of the compromises dragging it down,” he explained.
The 2012 season regulations do not allow teams to use off-throttle blown diffuser and speculations have been made that the season will be very closely fought unlike the 2011 season which saw Red Bull dominate the season.
Alonso earlier gave a statement that Ferrari is open to take more risks in order to develop a faster car, and Montezemolo warned his driver Felipe Massa of a better showing in order to retain his race seat beyond 2012. The statements have shown that Ferrari
is desperate to perform much better in 2012.
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