F1 News

“Ferrari has all the elements at least to fight until the last race”

“Ferrari has all the elements at least to fight until the last race”

08-01-2020 11:36
1

Bevan Youl

Former Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has said that “Ferrari has all the elements” to fight for a World Championship until the last race throughout 2020, whilst feeling sorry for their lack of consistent competitiveness the past few seasons.

The past decade and more Ferrari have been unable to achieve success in winning any trophies, particularly being unable to stay competitive for a whole season the past few years.
 
Di Montezemolo expressed his disappointment that Ferrari were unable to capitalise on a strong winter testing in 2019, only being competitive for the majority of the second half of the season.
 
The Italian recalled memories of losing championships with Ferrari at the last race during his time in charge, apologising for it not being the case recently.

“It was a World Championship that I hoped would go better, given the initial start and the winter tests,” he told Sky Sports in Italy.

“What I am sorry for is that for a few years Ferrari has not won the World Championship. The fact that Ferrari was never able to at least be in the fight until the last race of the year, that’s bad.

“I have some bad memories myself, of many titles lost at the last race of the season, but at least until the end there was a chance to win. Last season and further in the past this has not happened and I was sorry.

“The causes are first of all the competitiveness of the machine: last year it was more evident that there were reliability problems.

“Then there is the tactics, the management of the race, the drivers. Winning in Formula 1 means having a perfect set of elements.

“I had put together a great team at my time if I think of Todt, Brown, Domenicali, Byrne. I think we must take into account that we must improve our team.”

But di Motezemolo praised Mattia Binotto in his first year in charge of the team, believing they now have a better understanding to fight for a title throughout 2020.

“Binotto is smart, in his first year with a very large amount of responsibility he did well,” he added.

“We will see, in 2020 I expect an improvement from Red Bull and the Honda engine, but Ferrari has all the elements at least to try to win and fight until the last race.”