Montezemolo backs Verstappen: "FIA exaggerates on contact and track limits"

To La politica nel Pallone on Radio GR Parlamento, Ferrari’s winningest President with champions like Niki Lauda and Michael Schumacher, hailed Verstappen for his feat during this year’s season. "There are great champions and then there are champions like Sofia Goggia in skiing, Federica Pellegrini in swimming, or Jannik Sinner in tennis. In F1 Verstappen is a champion, he has always been very strong even with go-karts,” began Montezemolo, who saw the Dutchman push himself to the limits when battling against his often superior rivals. “This year he had to ask the maximum of himself: he had a car inferior to McLaren and in some cases even to Ferrari".

Would the Stewards jail the greats of the past?

However, being on the limit so often put him in the FIA Stewards' crosshairs, which in Verstappen’s view, the governing body’s officials' decisions weren’t always consistent. Montezemolo also comments on this and uses an emblematic example of true and hard F1 racing from a bygone era between two greats of the sport, René Arnoux and Gilles Villeneuve at the Dijon Prenois Circuit, during the 1979 French Grand Prix. 

"F1 is made of healthy duels: what would they have done in the duel between Villeneuve and Arnoux, would they have put them in jail?,” said the former Ferrari President, who thinks F1 is going over the top with regulatory behaviour, and believes that the category should be careful not to lose the emotion attached to the sport.

“I think we are exaggerating, both in terms of physical contact and in going beyond the lines of the track. So Formula 1 is becoming a precision watch: we must leave room for emotion, courage and the ability of the drivers who must not look at the millimetres. It is one of the points to reflect on to change things a bit,” concluded Montezemolo.