Going into the winter, in a move hardly likely to boost his morale, Luca di Montezemolo has openly criticised Felipe Massa's driving during the season.

"At a certain point in the season Felipe was fed up and sent his brother," the Ferrari president told journalists at the team's traditional media Christmas dinner last night. "For this Felipe gets 7," he added.

"For Alonso, in his first season in Ferrari, I give him 9 and a half," the Italian continued. "But unfortunately even he didn't win."

Despite the fact that Massa (seen above at the 2009 staff Christmas party with di Montezemolo) has a contract for next season there is widespread speculation that he might leave taking his engineer Rob Smedley with him. Neither have appeared to recover from this year's German Grand Prix when the Brazilian was ordered to hand over the lead of the race to his Spanish teammate. From then on, both on track and off, the Brazilian lost his shine.

While di Montezemolo was laughing at the time he made his comments, the sentiment betrays a hard edge to the Italian outfit that has become ever more noticeable in recent years. While Enzo Ferrari had his favourite drivers and was clearly distraught following the death of Gilles Villeneuve, he often showed a callous attitude towards the men that drove his legendary cars.

In recent years, despite the proud boasts about its passion and the family atmosphere within the team, Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen have discovered that once you have served your purpose there is little room for sentiment at Maranello.