Two days after the Japanese GP, Jean Todt, who is touring the Asian-Pacific region meeting Ferrari importers, had further thoughts about what happened last Sunday at the Fuji Speedway.
"48 hours later we have the possibility to analyze the facts with greater tranquillity and sangfroid. I have to admit that there is still some bitterness as far as the outcome of the race is concerned," the Ferrari CEO told Ferrariworld.com. "We had the potential to win and to catch up further in the Drivers' Championship. But now Felipe has dropped out arithmetically and Kimi needs a miracle to become World Champion.
"I'm very disappointed about the way of communication of the important instructions from the stewards right before the race," he admitted. "They should have done better. Apart from the fact that the procedure has not been formally observed, there is also the regret that certain actions have not been implemented by the ones, who for example had to underline the fact that we had to use rain tyres, while on the monitors the message about the fact that we had to start behind the safety car was transmitted. But also the FIA personnel could have verified on the grid, that all the teams had received the communication. It's true that the press release by the Federation on Sunday evening acknowledged the procedural mistake, but by then the damage was already done."
As far as the technical decisions and strategy are concerned, Todt defended the team's work: "After the race it's always easy to say that we made a mistake in terms of the tyres. But I'm still convinced that many other teams would have made the same decision under the given conditions; many cars drove the entry lap on intermediate tyres, just to see how they went. Our decision, shared by the whole team and by the Bridgestone representatives, was taken based on the fact that we thought that the rain would not come back and that starting behind the safety car would have formed a wet lane without all the water on the track we had in the end. Under these conditions the tyres would have had an advantage. As far as the pit stops are concerned, I don't want to make any remarks. We had to call in both of our drivers in the first few laps and we gave them as much fuel as we could. Then, with the lasting neutralization of the race, we tried to make the best out of it and refuelled again after 14 (with Kimi) and 15 laps (with Felipe). We were at the back of the pack and considering the time it took the safety car to drive one lap, we had the possibility to have a pitstop without losing any positions and get back at the end of the pack. In this situation it would have been more prolific if we had stopped more often, also considering that the race could have reached it's maximum of two hours. Then in an already difficult position for Felipe, he was awarded a penalty, because he had passed Heidfeld during the safety car stage, when our driver even spun. During the middle stint Kimi and Felipe drove an excellent pursuit race. But we knew that they both had to stop to get fuel, considering the capacity of our tank. Kimi stopped early on (lap 40), also because his tyres created some problems. We lost a couple of seconds due to an electronic problem and the mechanics had to open the fuel tank cap by hand, but we didn't lose a position. Meanwhile Felipe stopped on lap 57 from third position. As you can see, it was thanks to our strategy in a situation, when everything was influenced by the early, compulsory pitstop, but also thanks to the talent of our drivers and some exceptional overtaking manoeuvres - like when Kimi overtook Coulthard and when Felipe passed Kubica on the last lap - that we managed to get one car on the podium and the other one into the points: I feel sorry for the fact that this has not been completely understood from the outside."
The performance from the team's drivers brought Todt to reflect about the season: "If we don't bring back to Maranello - together with the Constructors' title - also the Drivers' title, it is, because we didn't have enough reliability. It's enough to have a look at the championship: we lost some very important points - and I'm thinking about the problems Felipe had in Australia, Great Britain and Italy and the ones Kimi had at Barcelona and at the Nürburgring. With these points we would be really close to the actual leader in the championship. We have two very good drivers, who have demonstrated that they can work together and know that the concerns of the team come first when it is necessary.
"This will always remain a positive season, although there were some moments, when we really suffered and which did no good to Formula One. In the first year with a new organization of the team, when many expected us to be in decline, we gained 170 points, seven wins and eight pole positions so far and last but not least we have won the Constructors' title for the 15th time in our history, the 7th in the last nine years. When I pause for a moment and look at the last 15 years, I feel satisfied about what Ferrari has done over all these years: 12 world champion titles, 96 wins, 84 pole position, 83 fastest laps, more than 2,000 points: these are the figures, which should make proud everybody at Ferrari, our partners, our shareholders and the millions of fans of the Prancing Horse all over the world."
