Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali retains the full support of president Luca di Montezemolo despite the team’s recent championship struggles.
The team last won the constructors’ championship in 2008 and rivals Red Bull are on course for a fourth consecutive crown this year.
Fernando Alonso has narrowly missed out on the drivers’ championship twice in the last three years and has lost ground to points leader Sebastian Vettel in the last four races.
However Montezemolo said Domenicali’s position was “never” in doubt, telling La Gazzetta dello Sport: “he would be missed”.
“Over the past three years, we have lost two [drivers’] world titles at the last race and it was not his fault.”
“I’ve been around a long time, from the point eleven years on from [John] Surtees’ title. Then as president, with [Michael] Schumacher and the Todt-Brawn-Byrne triumvirate, we created a golden era and now the team is ready to start winning again.”
“The void since the Schumacher era was caused by delays on the simulation front and with the aerodynamics. However, in all but three years, Ferrari has always been in the title fight right to the last race.”
Montezemolo has high hopes for the new technical team Domenicali is assembling: “I am counting a lot on James Allison. With him came the head of aerodynamics from Lotus and other new faces.”
“Finally, we will have the creativity we were lacking. Allison knows the team and the men and he speaks Italian. Others wanted him, but he preferred us and his arrival will also bring a change in working methods in many areas. Pat Fry will concentrate on improving our on-track operations, our methodology and the simulator.”
Montezemolo also said Domenicali was the driving force behind another major hiring from Lotus: “He was the first to advocate the choice of Kimi [Raikkonen]. He has worked well, preparing for the future and now I expect to see results in the present.”
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Image © Ferrari/Ercole Colombo
Lucas Wilson (@full-throttle-f1)
17th September 2013, 12:51
Lets hope for a Mercedes-Ferrari showdown for 2014!
zoom (@zoomracing)
17th September 2013, 15:08
Cool, so is not Montezemolo’s fault, and is not Domenicali’s fault, one day I want to be a boss too, it’s always others fault.
sw280 (@sw280)
17th September 2013, 18:47
Fault, what fault. It’s sport, they are losing because other people are doing better not because they are incompetent. I am sure Domenicali is a wealthy man but it is ridiculous to ask a man to lose his livelihood and bring uncertainty upon his family just because collectively Ferrari are not as good as Red Bull. Formula 1 is not football where all top level salaries are extortionate, many F1 engineers earn a good but not huge wage. It is highly unfair for the uninformed, anyone outside the team, to demand they are sacked.
Baron (@baron)
19th September 2013, 17:05
@sw20 : Very very good post. Thank you….
MB (@muralibhats)
18th September 2013, 2:25
When Ferrari Deny Anything, its actually the opposite. Last month they said the Kimi rumours was not true and far from truth. I am sure he was just answering a question on Domenicali..
Johnny5
18th September 2013, 6:17
My vote is for flavio briatore, it’s time to send Domenicali packing once in for all.
He blotched the 2nd race this year, where alonso’s wing was screwed and should have pitted right away….instaed alonso got DNF
Monza when Alonso was only 5 second behind Vettel, that was time to follow vettel into the pits and do the tire swap. In the long run , with gear box acting up, those 6 seconds would have under 0.5 seconds and there’s no doubt in my mind that Alonso would have force Vettel into pushing his renault gearbox/engine to point of destruction and most likely failure ……most likely handing Vettel a win and cutting point deficit by half.
Or how about the poor race strategy last year in 2012 where alonso was in arm’s reach of vettel and another bad call.
Wait i know my favorite Abu Dhubi in 2010 where alonso was leading in points going into the last year and bad call on set another sh1ty tire strategy leading to another lost championship.
If Ferrari is pulling all the best they can, from Lotus, to Kimi, former aero guys from Toyota, building out a brand new aero tunnel, new mechanical engineers for the engine why the hell not get flavio whose managed alonso and oversaw ING Renault (when they had the big bucks) to 2 WDC and WCC ?
Good bye Domenicali it’s been nice to know you, don’t take personal it’s just business and you’re not showing results ……kind of like Felipe.
MB (@muralibhats)
18th September 2013, 8:23
Yeah. Flavio. The cleanest person in F1.
Geoff Richards
14th April 2014, 11:44
So why is Twitter awash with reports that Domenicali has resigned?!