Quotes of the week

Ecclestone

BERNIE ECCLESTONE, President and CEO of Formula One Management and Formula One Association
"Britain is supposed to be the heart of Formula One racing and our circuit is bottom of the list," Ecclestone said. "With a tiny percentage of what the government are wasting on the Olympics, they could support Silverstone. They know exactly what they have to do. They've known for at least five years. It's not for us to say where the money comes from but it's strange because most of the events we have now are supported by governments." (Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone has described Silverstone as the sport's worst circuit and called on the government to invest in improvements. Ecclestone has repeatedly warned that the historic venue is in danger of losing the British Grand Prix.)

Luca di Montezemolo

LUCA DI MONTEZEMOLA, President, Ferrari
"This season has been more about treachery than sportsmanship, which I saw little of," Montezemolo said after the Court of Appeal found McLaren's appeal inadmissible. "For the first time the lawyers worked harder than the technicians, but our successes prove that we are a true team," said Montezemolo. (Four weeks have passed since Kimi Raikkonen mathematically clinched the drivers' title in Brazil, but the 'cool fuel' appeal lodged by McLaren could potentially have handed the crown to Lewis Hamilton late last week.)

MARIO THEISSEN, BMW Motorsports Director and Team Principal
"The penalty imposed on McLaren Mercedes may have promoted us to second place in the World Championship on paper, but that doesn’t disguise the fact that four cars were clearly faster than us in 2007. Closing the gap on these two teams will be a big challenge. It was a strong season at the end of which we even managed to crack the 100 points barrier. We went into the season having finished fifth in the World Championship on 36 points in our debut year. We set ourselves the goal of fourth place and a much bigger points total this year, so third was a great bonus. The powers that be then promoted us even further, but it is a pretty empty second place in our eyes. After all, we’re well aware that four cars have been faster than us, and we want to beat them on the track, not in the corridors of power. It was surprising that we were the third-best team from the outset and were able to reinforce this position in practically every race. On occasions we were even able to break into the territory of the two leading teams, meaning that we recorded the podium positions we were aiming for on merit. To sum up, we can be proud of what we have achieved both as far as our development work over the winter is concerned and in terms of our pace of development during the course of the season. We have managed to meet our targets in both of our development years so far, so the engineers can see that our ideas are working. That breeds confidence in our strategy, and as a result they can see that we are heading in the right direction."

ADRIAN NEWEY, Designer, Red Bull Formula 1 team
Newey said the Stepneygate saga involving Ferrari secrets in 2007 was "over-hyped". He said, "Such things have always gone on in the industry and will always continue to do so. The fact is that there have been far bigger breaches of personnel taking info with them from one team to another in the past which have gone undetected or without penalty My personal opinion is that anything anyone can take with them in their head is fair game, but anything that is written or in electronic format is not."

SAM MICHAEL, Technical Director, Williams Formula 1 team
"Bloody hell. That was impressive what he [Michael Schumacher] did at Barcelona. It was incredible," said Sam Michael. "I'm surprised he doesn't come back to be honest. If he seriously got into a top car for next year he could win the world championship again. But I think he has made his decision [to retire] and he wants to stick by it," Michael added. (Commenting after Michael Schumacher tested the Ferrari F1 car at Barcelona)

MIKE GASCOYNE, Technical Director, Force India F1 team
"If they [Toyota] continue to follow their corporate philosophy I don't think they've got a hope in hell [of succeeding in Formula One]," said Gascoyne now at Force India. (Toyota's relationship with former technical director Mike Gascoyne famously ended early last year over what Toyota described as a "fundamental difference of opinion")

NICO ROSBERG, Formula 1 driver, Williams
"You can't argue with his performance because he [Lewis Hamilton] has had the world champion as a teammate and that is all the perspective you need," said Rosberg, a former karting adversary of Hamilton. "But no other rookie has ever had the equipment he had," he added. (Rosberg urged the British press to "get the right perspective" when gushing over Hamilton, the 2007 title runner-up)