Ferrari under fire as the dust settles

In the aftermath of Ferrari and Fernando Alonso's failure to land the drivers' championship, there is growing speculation, mainly in the Italian media, that widespread changes will result at Maranello.

"Some things will change and, sure, some heads will roll," said the authoritative Italian daily La Gazzetta dello Sport. While the newspaper did not name Chris Dyer - Ferrari's chief track engineer - some Spanish sources did, claiming it was the Australian's decision to "cover" Mark Webber's Abu Dhabi race strategy that stranded Alonso behind Vitaly Petrov.

A source close to Ferrari told the Guardian: "There will be changes at Ferrari for sure. What happened on Sunday was a big, heavy mistake. But they won't be changing the car, Alonso, the president or [Stefano] Domenicali. Instead there will be changes to the inefficient pit area. It may not even be a sacking. But next season some important people will no longer hold the positions they do today."

And never one to miss an opportunity for some free publicity, Roberto Calderoli of Italy's Northern League party called for Luca di Montezemolo's resignation, slamming the pit strategy in Abu Dhabi as a "demented strategy".

"We're sorry to see that there are some politicians on the outside who are ready to push for the guillotine when things go badly," di Montezemolo countered. "We don't understand anyone who revels in self-defeatism, who sinks into the culture of 'everything's gone wrong, we have to start all over again'. They are vices that are very Italian, that we must learn to shake off."

"The only thing we can do is try to take a breath, recharge the batteries and push people to do a better job next year," team boss Domenicali said. "What we should not do at the moment is let ourselves be swayed by false prophets or by those saying 'I told you so'. We have to work on areas that need improving, we need to develop and know exactly what we need to do next year.

"The good and the bad thing about Ferrari is that we are only allowed to win. Coming second is not an option, and in this context, we need to understand quite clearly where we need to invest and take the right steps to make sure we win next year.

"We had already started making some important changes this year in our organisation, introducing new methods and new people who will become effective from next year. Reliability is a good place to start and to carry on into next year."

Triple world champion Niki Lauda told the Austrian press: "There should be three days of mourning, then they all eat spaghetti again and forget the defeat."

Source: ESPNF1