Ferrari boss hits out at Valencia events

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Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo says the European Grand Prix set a dangerous precedent that could damage the credibility of Formula 1.

The Italian squad has been fuming since McLaren's Lewis Hamilton finished in second position in the Valencia race despite being given a drive-through penalty.

Ferrari believes the penalty came too late and as a result the Briton was able to keep his position despite breaking the rules by having overtaken the safety car early in the race.

Fernando Alonso, running right behind Hamilton when the safety car was deployed, stayed behind it and wound up finishing in ninth as a consequence.

Another nine drivers received five-second penalties after the race for having breaking the safety car delta time rules.

Di Montezemolo said on Monday that the situation was unacceptable and that it cast a shadow over the credibility of the sport.

"The result of yesterday's race was misrepresentative," di Montezemolo said on Ferrari's website. "Ferrari, which showed itself to be competitive in the European Grand Prix, paid a price that was too high for respecting the rules.

"Meanwhile those who didn't follow the rules were penalised by the race officials in a way that was less severe than the damage suffered by those who did respect them.

"That is a very serious and unacceptable event that creates dangerous precedents, throwing a shadow over the credibility of Formula 1.

"We are sure that the FIA will fully analyse what happened, taking the consequent necessary decisions. Ferrari will watch this with interest."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/84876

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Boss tempers Ferrari outbursts after Valencia scandal

Stefano Domenicali has moved to temper Ferrari's Latin outbursts in the wake of the European grand prix.

After the Valencia race, Fernando Alonso accused FIA stewards of "manipulating" the outcome, while Ferrari's official website called Lewis Hamilton's mild penalty for overtaking the safety car "a scandal".

Regarding the "scandal" report, team boss Domenicali said the writer was only expressing the views of the fans.

For instance, Ferrari linked the Hamilton incident with a marshal having to run onto the circuit to recover a glass bottle.

"The attitude of the public is understandable. They were disgusted by the injustices that were happening," said Alonso.

But Domenicali also excused Alonso's outspoken attitude as the result of being "in a hot moment".

"For sure Fernando was the man that was ruined by the situation," the Italian is quoted by AFP news agency.

Ferrari's website writer continued his tirade on Monday morning, repeating the La Gazzetta dello Sport headline "Scandal Hamilton, Ferrari deceived", and revealing that Spanish sports daily Marca believes F1 must "oppose Hamilton's favourable treatment".

But some sections of the international press are unimpressed with Ferrari's attitude; Daily Mail writer Jonathan McEvoy said it "smacks of arrogance and desperation".

"They are the grandest team in the sport, but they are just one of the players. Not the referee. Perhaps if the season had gone their way, they might be more sanguine."

http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=375160&FS=F1

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Ferrari says complaints are legitimate

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali insists his team is not complaining simply for the sake of it, despite its continued anger over what it feels was an injustice at the European Grand Prix.

The Maranello team is furious that title rival Lewis Hamilton effectively escaped unpunished, despite overtaking the safety car that had been called out following Mark Webber's crash.

With Fernando Alonso having claimed the FIA 'manipulated' the race by not giving Hamilton his drive-through soon enough, Domenicali claims that there are legitimate reasons as to why Ferrari is so upset.

"We need to be careful by avoiding to take a counter-constructive attitude and complaining just for the sake of it, because it's useless," said Domenicali.

"We need to be very calm at these times, but we can't pretend nothing has happened. However, I repeat, rationality must prevail over emotions, which are very strong."

Domenicali reiterated that the main problem was the delay in punishing Hamilton, which allowed him to build up enough of a cushion so he could take his drive-through penalty without losing any places.

"I think what needs to be done is evaluating the sanction by keeping in mind the time of the decision and the way the race is developing," he said. "These are important issues.

"Looking back during the post-race analysis, it's clear that you are advantaged by not following the rules because at the end of day you gained more points. This is not alright from the point of view of the principle of the sporting regulation, and we need to work on it.

"I think we need to believe in the principles: it worked this way today, let's hope it's different next time."

When asked whether he believed there was any bias towards Hamilton, Domenicali said: "I want to believe this is not the case."

Although Domenicali has moved to tone down some of Alonso's initial comments, Ferrari vice-president Piero Ferrari suggested that the European Grand Prix had been a 'false' event because of what happened.

"I am incredulous and bitter, not just for Ferrari, but for the sport as a whole, as this is not the sort of thing one expects from professionals," Ferrari said in a statement on his team's website.

"For a long time now, I have also followed races in championships in the United States, where the appearance of the safety car is a frequent occurrence, but I have never seen anything similar to what happened today at the Valencia circuit.

"If it raises some doubts over the actions that led to a false race, to me that would seem more than reasonable."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/84875

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More protests from fans on the forum

Maranello, 29 June – Fans on the Forum on www.ferrari.com are still expressing their bitterness about the race in Valencia. Having read the newspapers, some are raising questions about the behaviour of the stewards, as does Luca Bergamini. The papers say that the stewards were watching the Germany-England match on TV after the race. Can you believe it? After the chaos on track, they were watching TV…That’s why they took a lifetime to decide on 5 ridiculous seconds. It’s time for change! Enough of stewards who saunter around the world for a weekend at the race track and then start watching football! We want professionals!

Another Ferrari fan, going by the nom de plume of AliRosse complains about how Formula One is run in general, sending a concerned appeal to the President. “Mr. President, boycott the British GP, don’t go, cause a worldwide scene, bring it all back to legality.”

Others also broach the subject of the nationality of the race stewards, saying they should not be of the same nationality as the competitors, as suggested by Goodwood, a British fan who says “..Everybody should see the intrinsic unfairness of having at every GP stewards of the same nationality as drivers in the grid. Can you imagine a football match having a referee of the same nationatily as any of the contenders? I can't. This is not about nationality, it's about the fact that the sport's ruling bodies are controlled by Brits.BTW, I am half British myself.”

And another contributor refers to similar events in the past, which resulted in very different penalties being imposed. Goblin says “It was 2006, in the GP2 race in Imola, and Lewis overtook the safety car after falsely thinking he was being waved through when in fact it was waving through the Campos cars ahead of him. Lewis was leading the race at that time and should have stayed behind the safety car. His penalty? A black flag and disqualification from the race. So I can see why Ferrari would be upset that a similar penalty was not applied to Lewis for this transgression.”

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The fans are still irate

Maranello, 30 June - Last Sunday's controversial European Grand Prix is still a hot topic of debate on the Ferrari.com site. Some people, like Franco Sacchi are still very angry: "the race directors acted like dilettantes, the judgments were not up to scratch and rules were unclear. Enough, it is now time for change" while others are less strident but continue to protest. Lorenzo.Cloud wants to see a protest organised against the FIA: "Give me the email of some bigwig at the FIA to whom we can forward our protests, I would be more than happy to do it, just to make it clear to these gentlemen what the current mood is."

Stefano Lago examines the situation and reveals the problem is not just about overtaking the safety car: "If Hamilton had stayed where he should have been and had crossed the line 6th or 7th, the Valencia race would still have had a false result because of the incompetent way the race director managed the Safety Car. It would be interesting to know what the English bookmakers think of such an artificially manipulated result."

Others, like Goodwood from England, underline the fact it is not just about a dispute between the English and Italians: "I didn't see any insults to Brits by Ferrari fans" even if the idea of having stewards of the same nationality as the drivers is considered impractical by the fan, Scuderia Star: "F1 is an international sport. You won't find a single nationality which is not involved.� Another asks a question that will never be answered: "I would just like to see that such a scenario happens, Hamilton and that he might be injured party, and to see how he would behave and McLaren ..." asks Dragan