Luca di Montezemolo slams lack of courage from FIA

Luca di Montezemolo

Luca di Montezemolo says the FIA showed a lack of courage when dealing with the Mercedes tyre testing scandal.

Mercedes was banned from this year’s Young Driver Test at Silverstone having carried out a three-day tyre test for Pirelli using a 2013 car earlier in the season. The FIA’s International Tribunal handed out the punishment having apportioned some blame to Mercedes, some to Pirelli and some to the FIA itself.

However, Montezemolo says the FIA did not show enough courage to properly punish Mercedes and that the benefits are now clearly being seen despite the tyres having been altered twice since that test.

“Formula 1 also has to be a clean sport without any of the monkey business we have had to put up with in recent years,” Montezemolo told Corriere della Sera. “From next season, we will have a completely different F1, finally less dependent on aerodynamics. I build cars not planes. We will finally have testing again and not a farce like what we saw this year with one team doing illegal testing without even paying the right penalty for it.

“In this case, I would have expected more clarity and courage from the FIA. On the other hand, the benefits gained by the team that carried out the secret banned testing are watched by everyone: before then, it had not won a single grand prix, then after the test it won three out of five races. These are the sort of serious incidents that affect F1′s credibility and alter the championship.”