Montezemolo: “Well done, but we keep our feet on the ground”

It took nine races, plus two from last season and a 259 day wait before once again seeing a Ferrari driver on the highest step of the podium after a Formula 1 Grand Prix. The victory meant that, above the gateway at number 55 Via Ascari, the entrance to the Gestione Sportiva, it was finally time to hang a Prancing Horse banner alongside the Italian flag for the first time in 2011. With Fernando Alonso’s win coinciding with the sixtieth anniversary of the very first Scuderia victory at the highest level of motor sport, it was worth spending a brief moment of celebration and that’s why all the men and women of the Scuderia were at the Fiorano track this afternoon.

“We managed to win and that is down to you and I want to thank you all for it,” said President Luca di Montezemolo. “You have done well and have shown, every single one of you, how to react at a difficult time. You did not lose heart and you managed to improve in all areas. In Stefano Domenicali you have a boss who has proved to be a leader and the congratulations I gave him immediately after the race on Sunday are for all of you. Now however, we must keep our feet on the ground, which is something we are used to, given that we know what it means to win. We must take another step forward, because we want to win again this year: to succeed in that, you must all try and do your best in your daily work, trying to achieve a personal pole position.

“Winning in England, at the home race for the great majority of our opponents is something special, all the more so as it happened on the day of such a significant anniversary,” continued Montezemolo. “I think that even Pat Fry, for for whom this is the first win since he took on the role of Chassis Director, managed to feel the difference there is between winning with another team and doing it with Ferrari.”

There was a special round of applause for the guys who, at every race, tackle a procedure that this year is more crucial than ever – the pit stop. “Effort, training and attention to detail: that’s how you manage to improve in a task like this: at Silverstone, you were perfect, so keep going forward like this,” concluded the President.

Stefano Domenicali was also keen to thank his staff: “We have got back on our feet thanks to you, but there is still a long way to go. It’s been quite a while already that we had the wherewithal to win and we managed it at a track that did not look too suited to us beforehand. Let us continue like this: we are a long way off the leaders, but who knows, if things go in a certain way, the air could begin to get more rarified…”

Montezemolo’s busy day in Maranello ended with his attendance at the Annual Dealer Meeting, a convention that brings together over two hundred dealers from the 58 countries in which Ferrari is represented.