Montezemolo: The interests of the team come first

The day after the one-two finish at Hockenheim, the Ferrari President chose to express his satisfaction with this long awaited result, through the Scuderia’s web site.

“I am very happy for all our fans who finally, yesterday, saw two Ferraris lead from start to finish as they dominated the race,” said Luca di Montezemolo in Maranello, where he reviewed the season so far along with Stefano Domenicali. “The result is down to the efforts of all our people, who never give up. Now we have to continue working like this, to improve the car so that is competitive at all the circuits we will encounter. Alonso and Massa also did very well, giving their all throughout the weekend. The polemics are of no interest to me."

"I simply reaffirm what I have always maintained, which is that our drivers are very well aware, and it is something they have to stick to, that if one races for Ferrari, then the interests of the team come before those of the individual. In any case, these things have happened since the days of Nuvolari and I experienced it myself when I was Sporting Director, in the days of Niki Lauda and not just then… Therefore enough of this hypocrisy, even if I can well believe that some people might well have liked to see our two drivers eliminate one another, but that is definitely not the case for me or indeed for our fans," he added.

A second Ferrari flag is now flying over the entrance to the Gestione Sportiva. It is a tradition that, following every win, a banner is raised with the black Prancing Horse on a yellow background and finally today, it was possible to add one alongside that which followed the Sakhir victory in the first race of the season.

Obviously, everyone at Maranello is very pleased with this result that has taken so long, too long, to arrive. The entire team realised that the work injected into the F10 had delivered the right performance level, but there was also frustration that the points were slow in coming. At Hockenheim, everything worked out well and along came the second one-two finish of the season. The 43 points picked up in Germany definitely reboots the team’s ambitions in both championships, as there are still eight races to go and anything can happen. Clearly, there is no real margin for error, so the team must continue down this path, as Stefano Domenicali repeated in his message to the squad. “Yesterday’s one-two is the best reward possible for everything you managed to achieve in recent weeks,” said the Scuderia Ferrari Team Principal. “It’s been a while that we deserved to achieve something worthwhile and finally yesterday we did it. You have been exceptional in reacting quickly to improve the car until it was competitive at the highest level. Now we just have to remain focussed on our own work and continue down this path, starting in Budapest.”

The Hungarian Grand Prix is just around the corner and indeed the two F10s that triumphed in Hockenheim have almost arrived already in the Hungarian capital, along with the first group of mechanics. The last round of the championship prior to the summer break another crucial step for the Scuderia: the fightback calls for another good result on Hungarian soil.