Ferrari boss Luca di Montezemolo is known for running his mouth on things that he does not like or which does not go down well with the Scuderia. No stranger to controvery, di Montezomolo was one of the loudest voices in protest against the introduction of new teams to the Formula One grid, famously saying that he would "rather race against three Mclaren or Renault's than two whatever's." And now the famous Italian is back at it again.
Speaking to Autocar at a private dinner in London di Montezemolo launched a thinly veiled attack at the new entrants to the sport, calling for sweeping changes to Formula One and branded the new uncompetitive teams as a 'joke'.
"There is a need to have competitive teams," he said. "F1 is like soccer. It needs heroes and it needs big teams. You cannot equalise everything. We need to avoid having too many small teams because it means too many compromises."
Di Montezemolo also again revealed that he favored running a third car, or giving an identical Ferrari to another team to run.
"Giving this car to a good young driver or Valentino Rossi would be better than a team being four seconds behind," he said, possibly trying to make some room for the legendary multiple world champion MotoGP racer.
Ferrari’s boss also proposed revisions to spice up the sport.
"Do we need to race at two in the afternoon when everyone is at the sea?" he said. "Could we have two races per meeting? Do races need to last so long? F1 is not an endurance race. We need races to be short and tough."
He also called for a return to testing during the season: "F1 is the only sport in the world where there is no training."
However di Montezemolo also admitted that Ferrari has considered re-entering endurance sports car racing. "I’m very impressed with Le Mans but we can’t do both [F1] because of money and know-how and it’s only one race," he said.
"Instead if we can put together an endurance series, either 12 or 24 hours, with other car makers and race around the world, that would be good," he said.
Expect to hear more from Luca as he tries to make room for Rossi to race with the Scuderia and possibly to rid the F1 grid of those pesky newcomers. Can't wait to hear what Tony Fernandes and Richard Branson have to say about this.
Source: Autocar
