Di Montezemolo: Ferrari’s problem is not the drivers

Kimi Raikkonen is still the last to win the championship title for Ferrari, and that year 2007 is also remembered by Scuderia fans as their favorite team won the Constructors’ Championship. It was a long time ago, 16 years ago, and since then it has not been possible to repeat such a success.

At the beginning of last season there was hope that Ferrari would return to the old level, but this period ended quickly – throughout 2022, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz won four races, and in 2023 not one.

In the recent history of Formula 1, the Italian team achieved its greatest success when Michael Schumacher was the leader of the Scuderia and Luca di Montezemolo was the head of Ferrari.

“For me, as a fan, this is what’s important: even if Ferrari doesn’t always win, as long as it fights for the title until the last race,” the former president of Ferrari quotes the Italian edition of Quotidiano Nazionale. – You can lose, but at the same time be one of the main characters of the championship, and no extras.

It continues to enjoy 3rd place, as in Spa, although this is not in the Ferrari style, and for Enzo Ferrari it would be unacceptable. But Leclerc is a good driver and I don’t think it is possible to sign someone stronger than Charles at the moment. However, at the moment drivers driving red cars are Ferrari’s smallest problem.”

According to Montezemolo, the most important thing is to ensure the coordinated and efficient work of all divisions of the team, so that success does not depend only on the heroic efforts of the riders. At one point, when he headed Ferrari, the key to success was that he managed to gather in Maranello a whole group of first-class professionals, masters of their craft – it is enough to mention Jean Todt, Michael Schumacher, Ross Brown and Rory Burn.