Ferrari ‘has all the elements’ for title fight
Ferrari don't want any delays to the 2021 regulations, unlike Mercedes and Red Bull.
Former Ferrari president, Luca di Montezemolo, feels the team “has all the elements” to battle for the title all the way through the 2020 season.
Ferrari are well accustomed to falling out of the title picture, with their last success coming all the way back in 2008 when they lifted the Constructors’ Championship.
There has been plenty of false Ferrari dawns along the way and Montezemolo regrets that his former team have not been able to launch a sustained fight on Mercedes.
“It was a World Championship that I hoped would go better, given the initial start and the winter tests,” Montezemolo told Sky Sports in Italy.
“What I am sorry for is that for a few years Ferrari has not won the World Championship. The fact that Ferrari was never able to at least be in the fight until the last race of the year, that’s bad.
“I have some bad memories myself, of many titles lost at the last race of the season, but at least until the end there was a chance to win. Last season and further in the past this has not happened and I was sorry.
“The causes are first of all the competitiveness of the machine: last year it was more evident that there were reliability problems.
“Then there is the tactics, the management of the race, the drivers. Winning in Formula 1 means having a perfect set of elements.
“I had put together a great team at my time if I think of Todt, Brown, Domenicali, Byrne. I think we must take into account that we must improve our team.”
Montezemolo, though, did reserve praise for Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto following his first year in charge and thinks they have a strong foundation to build on in order to mount a prolonged fight.
“Binotto is smart, in his first year with a very large amount of responsibility he did well,” he added.
“We will see, in 2020 I expect an improvement from Red Bull and the Honda engine, but Ferrari has all the elements at least to try to win and fight until the last race.”
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