25/12/2014
NEWS STORY
Former Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has retaliated following comments made by Sergio Marchionne earlier in the week.
Speaking at the end of year media Christmas lunch, the Ferrari chairman, appeared, without naming anyone, to lay the blame for the team's woeful season firmly at the door of Montezemolo.
"I will try not to talk about 2014 because it has been a year to forget," he said.
"2015 will be a year of reconstruction," he continued. "In the last few days we have made some sharp decisions on the make-up of the team and we know exactly who the key people are for development. We have taken away all the baggage of uncertainty which harmed the start of the work on the 2015 project."
Whilst 2014 was indeed a dreadful year for the Maranello outfit, the first since 1993 in which it has failed to win a single race, it would be wholly wrong to dismiss Montezemolo, who though at the helm during the recent title drought was also in charge during the long periods of success, both on the track and in the showroom. Newly installed as president of Alitalia, he was quick to hit back.
"Dear Marchionne, I don't intend to give in to provocation," he told the ANSA news agency, "but my work and what I won on the track and on the markets with Ferrari deserve respect."
Earlier this week, round about the time Marchionne was making his comments, Montezemolo was re-appointed to the board of F1 as a non-executive director, a move that is also said to have angered Marchionne.
Montezemolo was a non-executive director on the board from 2012 in his capacity as the Maranello outfit's representative.