Ferrari Chairman di Montezemolo Says Ferrari Needs to Live Up to Its Fans

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Chairman Luca di Montezemolo has become very serious about improving the company's F1 hopes in the last few weeks. First, he held a meeting following the Hungarian Grand Prix where he gave all of the engineers knives with the implied message to get to work or you will find this in your back. Di Montezemolo also gave an interview to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera where he says that Ferrari needs to live up to the expectations of its fans and talked about the team's future.

“Our fans should never be forgotten, they deserve respect and therefore they are entitled to get satisfaction. We must work for Ferrari and for them. Let me make it clear that it’s Ferrari I’m interested in. Drivers, we’ve had a lot, some very good, some great, but drivers come and go, while Ferrari remains," he said.

He also responded to Fernando Alonso's quote following the Hungarian Grand Prix where Alonso said: "[We] need to improve the car if we are going to have chances to win the world championship.”

Montezemolo responded by saying: "Fernando is a great driver and I understand him, he is a bit like me: he wants to win. He must just remember that one wins and loses together and for its part, Ferrari must give him a car capable of starting from the front two rows...It doesn’t sit well with me seeing our car is not competitive."

The team's goal is to examine its mistakes during the month off and fix them.

"We started so well, we had begun the world championship with a very competitive car, maybe even considered the best. But something happened and instead of moving forward we went backwards," he said.

He also basically confirmed that Felipe Massa is basically racing for a contract next season. If he performs well, he will race with the team. If not, he will be gone next year.

"Felipe is a quick driver and a great guy. But in the past days, we were very clear with him: both he and us need results and points. Then, at some point, we will look one another in the eye and decide what to do,” said di Montezemolo.

Di Montezemolo sees success in Ferrari's future. He believes that the rules changes next season will favor the team. There will be less of an emphasis on aerodynamics and more testing.

"With the current regulations favoring aerodynamics, Red Bull was clever in getting a great designer...I will digress: this aspect of the rules is, in my opinion, a mistake and therefore needs changing. Luckily, the hoped for changes are coming. I build cars not planes," he said.

Di Montezemolo's passion to win in Formula 1 comes from him running the F1 team from 1974 to 1977 and winning world championships with the team in 1975 and 1977.