F1: No Room For Vettel At Ferrari, Says Montezemolo

Formula 1

F1: No Room For Vettel At Ferrari, Says Montezemolo

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo nixes Red Bull driver move...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted October 15, 2012 Yeongam (KOR)

Ferrari President Luca Cordero di Montezemolo. (Photo: Getty Images)

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has countered suggestions that Sebastian Vettel might be joining Fernando Alonso at Maranello in 2014.

The Vettel rumours have been going around for some time, encouraged by the fact that the team has seemingly been seeking to hire a driver on a one-year deal in 2013 – a job that is now going to incumbent Felipe Massa.

“Today the problem is not with drivers,” he said on the Ferrari website. “2013 is still to come, but I don’t want to have two roosters in the same henhouse, rather two drivers who race for Ferrari and not for themselves. I don’t want problems and rivalries, which we didn’t have between Schumacher and Irvine, between Schumacher and Barrichello, between Alonso and Massa or Massa and Schumi or Massa and Raikkonen.”

He also scoffed at suggestions that Adrian Newey might one day head to Ferrari: “As for Newey, I can say that he is very good at his job but we also managed to win eight constructors’ titles in the last 13 championships without him: I have huge faith in our own engineers.”

Meanwhile he insisted that the championship battle was still wide open.

“It’s a very open championship. A few Grands Prix ago it was McLaren who seemed unbeatable, now it’s the turn of the Red Bull, while we are still up there in the fight. Pay attention, as the situation is changing really fast this year. Certainly we are left with major regret about the 30-odd points lost with the two accidents in Spa and Suzuka.

“If we had those today we would still have a 24-point advantage and we would be having a completely different debate. But over so many years at Ferrari I have seen everything: world championships lost at the last minute like we saw with Fernando in 2010 – or even after the finishing line itself, like with Felipe in 2008. But we have also won when no one would ever have imagined it possible, such as Kimi’s title in 2007.”

Adam Cooper notched up his 27th season as a racing journalist in 2011. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.