Luca di Montezemolo speaks in favour of Ferrari strategies during 2012 – Formula 1 news
Ferrari president, Luca di Montezemolo, has spoken in favour of the racing strategies used by Ferrari during the 2012 F1 season.
“Since I returned to Ferrari in 1991, I have always said that the drivers did not run for themselves, but for Ferrari,” Montezemolo said. “In Austin, we interpreted the sporting rules to the limit, as others do, but we did it openly. We could have lied,
but still they disliked our explanation and called it 'dirty tricks'. We have done it before (most notably during the Schumacher era), and we will do it again, but never in the first three races or first half of the year.”
He added that their rivals, Red Bull Racing, have used similar strategies but have not been so open about them. He pointed out that it is always Mark Webber’s car that suffers from technical problems because the newest parts are saved for the driver producing
better results which in Red Bull’s case is Sebastian Vettel.
However, he said that they are not ones who talk about other teams while they talk freely about Ferrari. He also defended the team’s strategy during the United States GP saying they did the only thing that was possible in order to provide Fernando Alonso,
who was running for the championship, with a better position to win.
Ferrari have been known to favour one of their driver more than the other. The situation was similar in 2012 as Alonso was favoured over his teammate Felipe Massa. During the United States GP, Alonso had qualified on the dirty side of the track which would
have hindered his start. In order to help him, the team deliberately broke the gearbox on Massa’s car which earned him a five place penalty and moved his teammate to a better position. Ferrari was also involved in a post season incident when they asked FIA
for a clarification of Vettel’s overtake during the Brazilian GP.
It was Vettel who had stated that some had tried to use ‘dirty tricks’ but Red Bull stayed focused. He defeated Alonso by three points to secure his third consecutive title.
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