In a column posted on their official website, Ferrari had once again slammed FIA's policy of allowing several teams to enter the sport without having made a rigorous selection first. As a consequence of what they've described as the “holy war” set off by Mosley, at least two of those teams are now unable to confirm their presence on the grid of the Bahrain GP (season opener).
Needless to say, the Italian columnists did not use the most respectful of languages when referring to the newly entrants, which is why the media decided to strike back.
It was Germany's Auto Motor und Sport columnist Michael Schmidt who first did that, under an article entitled “Red Card for Ferrari.” In it, the German journalists admits that he has “rarely read such nonsense" and categorized the Italians' attack as being a “far-fetched conspiracy theory.”
Additionally, Schmidt insisted that the FIA wasn't to blame for the manufacturers' exodus from the sport in recent years – the economic crisis was mostly what caused it – and that the need for new teams (and therefore a restructuring of the sport) was obvious from the get go. Even if the FIA could have chosen better teams to enter F1, nobody should expect them to perform great immediately.
The Europe-wide publications echoed the German columnists' thoughts, with the Times (UK) saying that Ferrari is blaming “Mosley for (the new teams') teething problems”, the Daily Telegraph calling Ferrari's move a “withering attack” and Italy's La Gazzetta dello Sport admitting Ferrari's attack was bitter.
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