Latest F1 news in brief
- Hamilton hits back at Montezemolo scorn
- Mosley refuses to apologize for Stewart attack
- Rodriguez – I deserve 2008 Spyker seat
Hamilton hits back at Montezemolo scorn
(GMM) McLaren's championship leader and title favorite Lewis Hamilton has hit back at Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo.
Referring to the espionage saga, in which McLaren was kicked out of the constructors' championship but allowed to keep racing for the drivers' crown, Montezemolo said recently that if Hamilton wins, it will be "thanks to Ferrari, because within his car there is plenty of our team."
Even if Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen wins the 2007 finale in Brazil next weekend, the Finn will only be drivers' champion if Hamilton improbably finishes outside of the top five.
According to the German newspaper Bild, 22-year-old Hamilton hit back at Montezemolo by saying: "I am leading the championship because we have had a better car than Ferrari, and because we did a better job with our reliability."
Mosley refuses to apologize for Stewart attack
(GMM) Max Mosley has publicly refused to apologize to Sir Jackie Stewart for last month calling him a "certified halfwit".
Over a media lunch with British journalists late in September, the FIA president was scathing of Stewart, the triple world champion, for criticizing the FIA's handling of the spying saga.
Stewart, who is 68, told the Guardian newspaper this week that an option to sue Mosley for libel is "very open".
"My lawyers are in communication with Mr. Mosley," he revealed.
Mosley, however, insisted to the same newspaper that he will not retract or apologize, even after 1996 world champion Damon Hill slammed his comments as a "gross insult" to someone who suffers from dyslexia.
Mosley said Stewart's description of the espionage affair as a witch hunt was "ill informed". "To make this and other unfounded and partisan accusations without viewing any of the evidence was not only inept but thoroughly irresponsible," he added.
"Such comments could do nothing but damage to the sport.
"I have no apology to make and I am more than happy to repeat this view about him now and in the future.
"Some members of the British motor sport establishment consider Jackie Stewart to be a national treasure," Mosley continued. "I have known Jackie for almost 40 years, and understand their view, but they must forgive me if I do not share it."
Rodriguez – I deserve 2008 Spyker seat
(GMM) Spanish GP2 driver Roldan Rodriguez still counts himself in the running for a race drive with the Spyker team in 2008.
The 22-year-old, reportedly with $15 million in sponsor cash in tow, was late last month confirmed as a tester for the Silverstone based team for the upcoming "2007/08 winter period".
Rodriguez will travel with the newly Indian-Dutch owned team to Brazil next weekend, and he declared in the Spanish sports newspaper Marca that "I deserve to be one of the 24 drivers" next year.
"I am going to see how the team works (at a race weekend)," he added.
Rodriguez, who drove for the Minardi-Piquet team this year, finished the GP2 championship in seventeenth place.
"Because of circumstances, lack of experience, failures of the team and bad luck, I did not obtain the result I would have wanted," he declared.