Di Montezemolo: Ferrari is Italian

Luca di Montezemolo has denied claims that his plans to make Ferrari more Italian have backfired on the team, forcing them to look outside Italy for personnel

Following the departures of Ross Brawn and Jean Todt, Ferrari headed towards a more Italian look as the marque appointed Stefano Domenicali as team boss and filled other key roles with Italians.

And although Ferrari claimed the 2008 Constructors' Championship under his leadership, the following two campaigns saw a slump in form as well as too many strategic errors out on track.

But while Domenicali survived the chopping block after a pit wall cost Fernando Alonso the 2010 Drivers' Championship title, Ferrari have opted to fill several key roles with people from outside Italy.

Having already appointed former McLaren man Pat Fry as assistant technical director, this season will see Neil Martin take charge of the new Operations Research department.

Di Montezemolo, though, insists this is not an indication that Ferrari are moving away from their Italian ambitions.

"The interpretation is wrong," he told Telegraph Sport. "For sure in some sense we are in Italy - we are not in the silicone valley in England - so sometimes we need some specific people, very good for specific rules.

"If we have some foreign people within the team I am happy. Fresh air, new culture. This is what I want.

"But listen, we are the only team totally based in Italy. We do engine, gearbox, chassis, everything in Italy.

"The man in charge of the engines is Italian, the team manager is Italian, the chief designer is Italian. We have a very good Englishman now in charge of strategy.

"Very good. No problem. And we will continue to do this (employ foreign nationals), without exceeding."

Source: Planet-F1

Newcomers and organisational changes

Maranello, 4th January – It had been hinted at prior to Christmas when, speaking to Italian and international journalists during seasonal festivities, Luca di Montezemolo and Stefano Domenicali talked of not taking any drastic action, but rather making changes aimed at improving the efficiency of the team in its work, both at the track and the factory. Today came the facts.

Joining the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro is the respected engineer, Neil Martin, who takes on the role of heading up the new Operations Research department. A 38 year old Englishman, Martin previously worked for Red Bull and prior to that McLaren and he will now report directly to Technical Director, Aldo Costa.

At the same time, Costa’s deputy, Pat Fry will, in addition to his current role, take on the job of head of race track engineering. Up until yesterday, this position was held by Chris Dyer and his role within the company will be redefined in the next few days.

Source: Ferrari.com