Todt rues reliability issues

Ferrari is still smarting from the tyre confusion at the Japanese Grand Prix, in which the team failed to receive an email from the stewards that indicated all cars were to start on extreme wets, but for the season in general boss Jean Todt rues the reliability issues that he believes prevented either Kimi Raikkonen or Felipe Massa claiming the drivers' title.

Jean Todt, Scuderia Ferrari, Ferrari CEO.

Photo by xpb.cc.

With only two races to go Massa is now out of the running and Raikkonen has a 17 point deficit to McLaren's championship leader Lewis Hamilton. The Finn will surely need some back luck on Hamilton's behalf to stand a chance of staying in the fight, but it's not quite over yet. However, Todt knows Ferrari could have been better.

"If we won't bring back to Maranello -- together with the constructors' title -- also the drivers' title, it is, because we didn't have enough reliability," he conceded. "It's enough to have a look at the championship: we lost some very important points -- and I'm thinking about the problems Felipe had in Australia, Great Britain and Italy and the ones Kimi had at Barcelona and at the N?rburgring."

"With these points we would be really close to the actual leader in the championship. We have two very good drivers, who have demonstrated that they can work together and know that the concerns of the team come first when it is necessary."

Even if the drivers' title is lost Ferrari has at least regained the constructors', although perhaps not in the kind of circumstances Todt might have hoped for. "This will always remain a positive season, although there were some moments, when we really suffered and which did no good to Formula One," he added.

"In the first year with a new organization of the team, when many expected us to be in decline, we gained 170 points, seven wins and eight pole positions so far and last but not least we could win the constructors' title for the 15th time in our history, the 7th in the last nine years."

"When I pause for a moment and look at the last 15 years, I feel satisfied about what Ferrari has done over all these years: 12 world champion titles, 96 wins, 84 pole position, 83 fastest laps in a race, more than 2,000 points: these are the figures, which should make proud everybody at Ferrari, our partners, our shareholders and the millions of fans of the Prancing Horse all over the world."

Meanwhile, it seems that Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo is not about to let things lie regarding the spy case which saw McLaren excluded from this year's championship. According to Gazzetta dello Sport he still believes the Woking squad's drivers should have been thrown out as well and if Hamilton wins the title it will be "thanks to Ferrari because there is a lot of Ferrari in his car."