Di Montezemolo: Ferrari is Italian

Luca di Montezemolo has denied claims that his plans to make Ferrari more Italian have backfired on the team, forcing them to look outside Italy for personnel

Following the departures of Ross Brawn and Jean Todt, Ferrari headed towards a more Italian look as the marque appointed Stefano Domenicali as team boss and filled other key roles with Italians.

And although Ferrari claimed the 2008 Constructors' Championship under his leadership, the following two campaigns saw a slump in form as well as too many strategic errors out on track.

But while Domenicali survived the chopping block after a pit wall cost Fernando Alonso the 2010 Drivers' Championship title, Ferrari have opted to fill several key roles with people from outside Italy.

Having already appointed former McLaren man Pat Fry as assistant technical director, this season will see Neil Martin take charge of the new Operations Research department.

Di Montezemolo, though, insists this is not an indication that Ferrari are moving away from their Italian ambitions.

"The interpretation is wrong," he told Telegraph Sport. "For sure in some sense we are in Italy - we are not in the silicone valley in England - so sometimes we need some specific people, very good for specific rules.

"If we have some foreign people within the team I am happy. Fresh air, new culture. This is what I want.

"But listen, we are the only team totally based in Italy. We do engine, gearbox, chassis, everything in Italy.

"The man in charge of the engines is Italian, the team manager is Italian, the chief designer is Italian. We have a very good Englishman now in charge of strategy.

"Very good. No problem. And we will continue to do this (employ foreign nationals), without exceeding."

Source: Planet-F1