Di Montezemolo: Ferrari would have won with Hamilton
- Published on 05 Dec 2018 10:49
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- By: Richard Fletcher
The former President of Ferrari, Luca Di Montezemolo believes that the Italian team would have won this year's championship if Hamilton had been driving for them. He was keen to ensure his comments were not seen to belittle Sebastian Vettel but he praised Hamilton's lack of errors this year.
Montezemolo who worked with Ferrari from 1973 to 2014 acknowledged Vettel's mistakes and said that the car was at times better than the Mercedes but that there was something missing. He also said that Hamilton had his best ever season.
Montezemolo said: “He has had moments of weakness and crisis, but this year with Ferrari he would have won. Ferrari did a good car this year, which in some situations was even better than Mercedes. But the final part was missing.
The former Ferrari boss added some advice for his old team in managing the 4 time World Champion: “Vettel made some decisive mistakes, but for the world championship, you have to do everything to keep him up. He is a driver of the highest order and always close to the team. In frustration, he must be supported, even more so with the arrival of a very strong boy (Leclerc) with a great future,” he added.
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Replies (7)
Login to replyKean
Posts: 692
They would have won with Alonso as well
ajpennypacker
Posts: 2,475
Damn Luca... what a burn. It's true though. As @Kean mentioned, Alonso would have probably won as well. I'd be willing to even throw Danny Ric into that mix.
Kean
Posts: 692
Yeah, Danny would have probably sealed it too.
jaybee
Posts: 16
I'm feel they would have won with Max, too
Kean
Posts: 692
Perhaps, but then he sort of began the season the way Vettel ended his.
f1ski
Posts: 726
Danny Ric and verstappen would have possibly won with ferrari. Merc late season strength
would have made it close. I am not a fan of Hamilton he exhibited tremendous restraint and control to manage his race situations to come out ahead. He suffered from the woes of hamilton the year that Rosberg won. I am impressed how he learned from that year. It showed in how he raced only worrying about today. Vettel has lost that ability and more importantly lost the ability to live at the limit without worrying about a mistake. Hopefully he will regain that confidence and get a real battle brewing next year.
ajpennypacker
Posts: 2,475
I prefer to see all of these guys racing at the top of their game. However, if I could choose I'd rather see someone else taking the battle to Hamilton. I think Vettel is a known cipher. It's been a good battle, but also quite underwhelming because Vettel always loses his cool towards the end of the season. No, I'd rather see Max, Danny, and Charles be the ones racing Lewis. I still don't think we've seen a serious battle between Max and Lewis. We've gotten small demos, but no proper battles for position. When both have something to lose. Usually we've seen Max willing to torpedo anyone because he is not thinking about the championship, and Lewis either cruising past, or taking it easy thinking about the long game.