Montezemolo points to Ferrari leadership: ''They just thought they could win F1''

Ferrari is in a deep valley and, of course, there are plenty of people who think so. So was Luca di Montezemolo, who was at the helm of the Italian team until 2014. He puts his hand in his own bosom.

Montezemolo takes the blame

Luca di Montezemolo was appointed Ferrari's new president at the end of 1991. The man who would later also become the CEO of the umbrella company FIAT, made it his personal mission to help Ferrari regain a world title. This succeeded in 1999 (manufacturer's title) and even more so in 2000 (driver's title).

After years of success, however, it went downhill at the end of 2008. In 2009, the team already went wrong and also with Fernando Alonso at the wheel, no more title was won. However, Ferrari is still experiencing the biggest mistake now, because at the end of his regime the Montezemolo team underestimated the new hybrid engines.

Ferrari still suffer from 2014

''In 2014 we had to pay a high price for underestimating the complexity of the new engine. Compared to the Germans, we don't have a hybrid culture in Italy at all,'' says Montezemolo, who would eventually resign in 2014 and be succeeded at FIAT by Sergio Marchionne.

''Unfortunately the problems came after 2014 and the people who managed Ferrari at that time had no experience in Formula 1. They thought they would win F1 for a while, but of course they did not. The biggest mistake, however, was to let very good engineers go. I mention, for example, James Allison, but there are more'', concludes Montezemolo opposite the German RTL.