Montezemolo proclaims "all-new Ferrari F1 Team"

Jean Todt: "The year 2007 is different to the last years for many reasons. Usually this first greeting of the year it is held at Campiglio, but last week I remained here to work on other things within the company. This fact is a symbol of the new cycle at Ferrari. Yesterday we did some shopping in Milan with Michael and we talked about many things. Right now he is in the garage to have a look at the car, but he is not the driver. I had a strange feeling seeing Kimi dressed in red, because until now we had to hide when we spoke to each other, while now we can do it in a normal way. Ross Brawn is fishing; you met the new Technical Director Mario Almondo in Campiglio and today you got to know also Aldo Costa and Gilles Simon, as heads of their respective departments.

“The upcoming championship will be a difficult battle, because we have strong and ambitious competitors. We have always been ambitious, we also try to be strong. Obviously we have to reply with facts and right now we have the elements. The car is ready and tomorrow Massa will drive it if the weather allows it. It will be a working day also for our customers, as the day will be concluded with the prize giving for the Corse Clienti season 2006.

“As far as the new organization of the Scuderia is concerned, I have to underline that Ross Brawn was the Technical Director excluding the engine, while Almondo is Technical Director of the chassis and the engine. This organisation is interesting, because Almondo has ample experience at Ferrari; he has different responsibilities and a different role than Ross. At the race track Baldisserri will be the boss; it is a different distribution of roles; the responsibilities are divided differently.

“Kimi's team will be the one that was Michael's last year; there will be no modifications. As far as the competitiveness is concerned we can see an improvement at all levels in the simulations. We have to confirm that on the race track, because what counts in the end is the stop watch. There is the big difference concerning the tyres, which will be new and different for everyone. We do not expect an advantage. We've already seen that there are around two to three seconds difference, as compared to 2006. Last year we were competitive but not reliable enough. So we absolutely have to get back to the levels of the years 2000 to 2004 when we were victorious.

Ferrari company head Luca di Montezemolo alkso spoke, proclaiming, “the aim is to win the Championship."

The Ferrari President went on: "I am glad to be able to share with you one of the first laps of this new car. I am extremely satisfied with this kind of presentation, because for us it was important to have a working day immediately, to be able to collect some precious data on this completely new car. I am glad that we were able to keep the timeframe that we had set for ourselves. For me this, as every year, is a day of big emotions; it is the beginning of a new adventure."

Montezemolo underlined that this year Ferrari is a complete new team, which knew how to conserve the experience gained over the last years: "This is a complete new Ferrari, and I don't speak just about the car but about the whole Scuderia. There is a new driver, who is succeeding a driver that has been with us since 1996. It is a very important substitution; not only because Michael has won more races than anyone else in our history, but also because he created a personal relationship with the company and the men. It is true that Massa is here for his second year and so we can say that he is still young. But he already has some experience and he grew a lot over the last year. There are two young managers - Stefano Domenicali, Sporting Director, and Mario Almondo, Technical Director - who come from the school of Ferrari. Over all those years we put all our resources in internal growth, which is a very important fact."

"From 1997 until today - apart from 2005 - we always won. And if we didn't win it was because we lost the Championship in the last race. This shows that Ferrari has always been, for many, many years, at the top. The competitors have changed, but we have always been the ones to beat. This year," Montezemolo declared, defining the goal for 2007, "we want to win the Championship."

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