Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo is not a man afraid to hold opposing views to the majority of the Formula One paddock, but felt that he would differ by speaking out
against Formula One's visit to Singapore.
Having seen one of his championship contenders finish 13th on the road and the other end his night in the barriers having been set for minor points, new FOTA chairman di Montezemolo branded the event 'humiliating for Formula One' - in contrast to the majority who felt that it had been a breath of fresh air and a unique experience - and slammed both the Marina Bay street circuit and the use of the safety car, which appeared twice during the 61-lap night race, for what he saw as cheapening the sport.
"When you race on a track that would work better as a circus ring or something along those lines, anything can happen, because the real spectacle was supplied by the safety car," he fumed in an interview with Italy's
Gazzetta dello Sport.
"This is humiliating for the
F1 world and, during the next few weeks, I would like discuss this with all the other teams. Going forward with these circuits heralds a bad future for
Formula One."
Ferrari's biggest rival,
McLaren, has also claimed that the timing of the first safety car, called when
Nelson Piquet Jr crashed on lap 14, had a decisive effect on the outcome of the race, but accepted that 'the lottery' had a habit of evening itself out over the course of the season. While
Lewis Hamilton came through to finish third in the race - behind
Fernando Alonso and
Nico Rosberg, who both benefited from the pace car period - Ferrari's
Felipe Massa, who had been leading until that point, saw his chances of victory disappear in yet another botched pit-stop from the Scuderia.
Despite watching a near repeat of the incident that saw one of the team's refuelling crew injured in Valencia, di Montezemolo reserved his vitriol for the circuit and not for the maligned automated pit release system.
