Ferrari: “A difficult season”

Luca di Montezemolo, on the occasion of Ferrari's Christmas dinner, took stock of a season far from the expectations of the Team. A single Grand Prix victory, Felipe Massa's accident, the inconclusive interludes of Giancarlo Fisichella and Luca Badoer, Ferrari doesn't have much to celebrate.

« 2009 was a bad year but I am convinced that next season we will find our way back to victory. », attests the president of Ferrari.

« From 1997 until today, we have almost always been in the fight for the title, winning many times and sometimes losing in the last race. The only exceptions are the year 2005 and the year that has just passed. There are reasons for our decline in performance, including gray areas in the regulations, which have led to different interpretations and decisions relating to these interpretations.

Then, we must consider that, in 2008, we fought to the end, trying to win the title, even though a major change to the regulations was going to take place at the end of the season.

At the start of the season we made some mistakes and there were reliability issues which cost us dearly. Then we reacted. Domenicali worked on the team which, in the second half of the season, functioned perfectly.

The team also worked on the car but, unfortunately, there was no way to change the essence of its original design. We installed the new diffuser, but this change alone was not enough. The car was not designed to accommodate it.

In July, we therefore decided to stop development of the F60, in order to concentrate on the design of the new car. Unfortunately, just as we started to collect some good results, Felipe (Massa) had his terrible accident. We were very worried about him, first as a man and then for his future as a pilot.

Thanks to Kimi. We managed to at least acquire a victory. But we became less and less competitive as other teams focused their efforts on development. Neither Fisichella nor Badoer could obtain a result with a difficult car and we finished fourth. »