After 3 races this season, Ferrari have joined Force India as the only teams yet to make the scoreboard. Neither Felipe Massa nor Kimi Raikkonen have managed to score any points for their team this year, leading to Ferrari's poorest season start since 1981. And, as far as Lauda is concerned, all of this has to do with the fact that the prancing horse is now ran by Italians.
Referring to the early 2000s – when Ferrari dominated Formula 1 in a tyrannic manner – Lauda expressed his belief concerning the reasons behind the Scuderia's success.
“In those days Ross (Brawn), because he is English, was the ideal bridge between the Italians, with their spaghetti culture, and (Michael) Schumacher, with his German efficiency. Now the Italians are running it all. Does it work? It could be chaos. That's the problem,” Lauda was quoted as saying by British newspaper The Daily Mail.
Domenicali went on to become team principal of Ferrari F1 team following Frenchman Jean Todt's stepping down from his position as team boss of the Scuderia at the end of 2007. Although he managed to bring the constructors' title to Maranello in his first year as team principal (2008), much of the credit for that success went to Todt, as the 2008 car was more of a revised 2007 challenger.
When asked to respond the critics, Domenicali insisted everyone should stay calm and try to focus exclusively at turning the Ferrari F60 into a race winner this year.
“I think we have to wait. We need to stay cool. It is not easy, I know, but we need to stay cool because there are too many things that can change very quickly,” said the Italian official. He added that Ferrari may consider writing off their 2009 campaign if Ferrari will not recover after the Spanish Grand Prix, and focus their attention on the 2010 challenger.
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