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Ferrari: Nothing Personal with Ross Brawn

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali insisted the rear diffuser row had nothing to do with a personal vendetta against former Ferrari boss Ross Brawn. As far as the Italian official is concerned, the FIA are the only ones to blame for the high tensions between the Formula 1 teams this affair has caused.

According to Domenicali, the international body should have resolved this matter a long time ago and not wait until 2 races had already passed to give a clear verdict on the double decker design. This entire period of time – starting from the Aussie GP and ending with the yesterday's verdict – could have been used by the teams to work on a new design, not to mention avoid the conflictual declarations between some of the teams' bosses.

“This is not a fight between Ferrari and Ross Brawn, as I have seen in some papers. It is a simple case that seven teams had a different understanding to the three teams that were challenged. This is not a personal fight,” said Domenicali in a short briefing at Shanghai circuit.

“The matter should have been resolved before the start of the season, in a very clear way. All of Formula 1 must learn from what has happened, because these events are not good for the image of the sport.”

“Another issue is that it could have repercussions and cause a rift among FOTA (Formula One Teams Association) member teams, as it is clear that tensions are now quite high. This is not a good situation as FOTA is very important for the future of Formula 1. These points will be discussed by us in a meeting scheduled for after the Bahrain Grand Prix,” added Domenicali.

Renault boss Flavio Briatore was one of the first team principals to accuse Ross Brawn of “conflict of interests”, as he argued the Englishman should have warned the other teams about the different diffuser design from his position as FOTA's technical delegate. Brawn hit back the very next day, saying he told the F1 teams about the double-decker system almost a year ago, only they did not listen.

Furthermore, Ferrari's lawyer Nigel Tozzi called Brawn “a person of supreme arrogance” during Tuesday's ICA hearing, after the former Ferrari employee called the other teams “too slow off the mark” for not figuring out the different design themselves.
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