Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has warned he will not tolerate a repeat of the debacle at the Hungarian Grand Prix where Rubens Barrichello crashed out and Michael Schumacher finished eighth.
”Performances and occurrences like we saw in Budapest should not be repeated,” Montezemolo said, adding that he wanted to see ”a team that wins everything” at the next Formula One race at Monza on September 14.
”We can do it because with Schumacher, we’ve got the best in the world,” said Montezemolo.
Renault’s Fernando Alonso won Sunday’s race at the Hungaroring, lapping five-time world champion Schumacher in the process, but more importantly, McLaren Mercedes’s Kimi Raikkonen finished second and BMW-Williams driver Juan Pablo Montoya came in third.
The result makes the race for the championship even closer, with just two points now covering the top three drivers.
The German still leads the standings with 72 points, one ahead of Montoya and two ahead of Raikkonen with the Italian GP at Monza, the United States GP at Indianapolis (September 28) and the Japanese GP at Suzuka (October 12) still to come.
Meanwhile, Ferrari team boss Jean Todt refused to blame tyre manufacturer Bridgestone for the poor performance even though the top seven places were occupied by teams using rivals Michelin.
”It’s not only the tyres that are to blame,” said Todt. ”We’ve got a raft of improvements planned.”
Todt indicated that before Monza, Ferrari would also be looking to improve performance in the areas of aerodynamics, electronics and traction.
”At Monza I want to once again see the highly successful Ferrari/Bridgestone team that has won seven titles and 45 races since 1999,” said Todt.
Ferrari’s recent poor performances have impacted on ticket sales for Monza with 10 000 still available. — Sapa-DPA