This afternoon, Stefano Domenicali, the Scuderia Ferrari Team Principal attended “Meetings with Gazzetta,” the traditional meeting between fans and people from the world of motor sport, organised by the daily paper, “La Gazzetta dello Sport” at the Bologna Motorshow. Domenicali was given a very warm welcome and faced many interesting questions from the fans, which ranged from the latest changes to the rules put out yesterday by the FIA World Council, to prospects for the 2011 season and further in the future, especially on the technical front.
Naturally, one hot topic was the abolition of the rule banning team orders. "Finally, we have said goodbye to this pointless hypocrisy,” said Domenicali to the waiting microphones of several TV companies that greeted him at the end of the meeting. “For us, Formula 1 is a team sport and we have always maintained that viewpoint and it should be treated as such. The regulations already include points that prevent certain situations being managed in an extreme manner. The decision taken yesterday is very important.”
Obviously, Domenicali was not giving much away when it came to the 2011 car. “When our Technical Director, Aldo Costa, spoke of extreme design, he wanted to spur all our engineers to push on the theme of innovation which, in Formula 1, means exploring all areas right up to the limits set by the regulations and I also hope that will be the case. It is a difficult challenge, because we operate in a very competitive environment: we know that in 2011 we will have to start off immediately with a car capable of winning, so that we are not always having to catch up, as was the case this year.”
To those who quizzed him on possible organisational changes, Domenicali had this to say: “We will make adjustments, but they will only be revealed at the right moment. From a technical point of view, we must try not to repeat the mistakes which occasionally led us to take a step backwards rather than forwards. In order to succeed, we are working with alacrity and without let up. Next season will be very long and we cannot allow ourselves not to make the most of our potential at every race: in 2010, especially in the early stages, we missed opportunities to pick up valuable points and we paid heavily for that at the final reckoning.”