Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFerrari

Alonso was 'demotivating' for Ferrari - Montezemolo

Former Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo says he moved for Sebastian Vettel after believing Fernando Alonso was "demotivating" the team.

Alonso had two years left to run on his Ferrari contract when he left to join McLaren-Honda at the end of 2014, with Vettel coming in to replace him. Montezemolo was Ferrari president at the time - though he left shortly before the driver change was confirmed - and he says Alonso's departure was necessary because he was having a negative effect on the team.

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"I had the feeling that Fernando had got it into his mind that he could never win with Ferrari, and that if he was in a Mercedes he could win with one hand and this was very demotivating for everyone," Montezemolo told Motorsport Magazine.

"Let me be clear: I believe Alonso is probably the best driver in the world even today - certainly on a Sunday. Maybe not in qualifying, where I think [Lewis] Hamilton and Vettel are maybe faster over one lap, but in the race he is unbelievable - a machine.

"But we needed motivation and it made me think what we needed for the future."

And Montezemolo says his sights were focused on Vettel by a recommendation from Ferrari's most successful driver some years earlier.

"I recalled that when I was trying to convince Michael [Schumacher] to return with us after Felipe [Massa]'s injury in 2009 he was saying, 'the guy you need for the future is Vettel'."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.