According to some sections of the media, and indeed, the paddock, the departure of Vodafone to rival McLaren, heralds the 'beginning of the end' for Ferrari, and that the Italian team will struggle as the cash dries up. Not so sys Jean Todt.

"I do realise that many may not have noticed that as of 2006, the agreements that we have signed, mean we are going to have some greater revenues as against what we've had in the past," said the Frenchman.

"Unfortunately, we have had to accept the departure of Vodafone," he continued. "Vodafone wanted to stay with Ferrari but we could not keep Vodafone with Ferrari. However, we're going to announce, in the next few days, some further agreements that have been reached.

"I've read on many, many occasions that Ferrari was financially in dire straits and we might not be able to support our programmes in the future...

"Well, all this is false and does not correspond to reality, to the truth," he added. "Some of our competitors may like to insist on these problems, but unfortunately for them it's not going to be so, and so we are going to have the means necessary to tackle future championships and of course this also means that we cannot use this as an excuse for lack of resources because we do have the resources."