Ferrari team rates Massa over Hamilton

(GMM) Four or five more teams, as well as Ferrari, would have followed Honda out of the sport had the FIA imposed a standard engine formula.

That is the revelation of Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo, who as chairman of the F1 teams' alliance FOTA oversaw the cost-slashing compromise solution with the FIA president Max Mosley.

"If one engine for all the teams had come in, at least four – maybe five – teams would have left. And I mean four or five in addition to Ferrari," the Italian is quoted as saying by La Gazzetta dello Sport.

Instead, FOTA and FIA came to a compromise where millions of euros will be cut out of annual budgets by de-tuning the current engines, and introducing radical measures including a total in-season testing ban.

Montezemolo also responded to Lewis Hamilton's recent claim that he has no desire to ever switch to Ferrari.

"Without doubt, he is a great driver, able to fight for the title in his first year and then win in the second.

"But, with all due respect, I would not swap him for Felipe Massa."

As for Hamilton's apparent lifetime Ferrari snub, Montezemolo added: "Usually, it is Ferrari that makes the choices.

"Kimi Raikkonen came to Ferrari and won the championship. And it was because of our mistakes that Massa did not win this year."