Montezemolo hits out at Ecclestone

03/12/2012

While the Horse Whisperer remains worryingly silent, Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has hit out at Bernie Ecclestone, clearly seething at the F1 supremo's reaction to 'Flag-gate'. (Sorry)

Speaking at the Ferrari World Finals in Valencia, Montezemolo hit out at the F1 boss who last week described Ferrari's potential protest of the Brazilian Grand Prix result "a joke".

"Ecclestone? You have to show respect for your elders, especially when they get to that stage in which they are no longer in control of what they say," said the Italian, a sprightly 65 compared to BCE's 82. "However, old age is clearly incompatible with certain roles and responsibilities".

"Someone said that it was scandalous that we asked the FIA for clarification over the yellow flags and that we went a bit too far," he continued. "Ferrari's actions were perfectly transparent, as we saw the video of what happened after the race, a video that was shown on websites all over the world.

"We received thousands of requests from our fans and decided that a request for clarification was the most simple, correct and logical action to take. The FIA declared that for them there had been no infringement and so the matter was closed.

"Congratulations go to Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull because whoever won after such a difficult season deserved the title and because at Ferrari that is what we do. And we would like everyone to congratulate us next season if we win the world championship.

"We were one of the main protagonists this season. We challenged for the title right till the end and next year will be very important for us. The most important thing is to be there at the top. We will have to work very hard to give our two drivers a winning car."

Having taken the sport's boss to task it was only right that Montezemolo have a pop at the rule makers, the Italian once again calling for the return of in-season testing, even though it was the teams' alliance, FOTA, of which Ferrari was a leading light at the time, that agreed to the in-season test ban.

"There are a number of things that are not right in Formula One and the moment has come to finally sort them out in the appropriate places" said Montezemolo. "It is not acceptable that Formula One no longer transfers technology to our road cars. The aerodynamics is now becoming something which has nothing to do with the research. This cannot be a sport in which there is no longer testing on the track. We have run out of patience. We are car manufacturers, not sponsors.

"As Ecclestone said, 'it's a joke!'"