Ferrari in Formula 1 quit threat

The idea of introducing weight penalties for those who are successful predictably left the Ferrari hierarchy angry last week. The raft of changes from motorsport govering body, the FIA, were interpreted as a way of slowing the team and Michael Schumacher in an effort to make F1 more competitive.

Di Montezemolo said: "I find the proposals slightly insane, stuff you'd hear in a bar by amateurish fans with little knowledge of the sport.

"But they rasie the question, if these proposals go through - and I don't think they will - would it make sense for us to keep investing in a modified formula?

"After having won so much we could look for new challenges outside of F1."

Although its domination has knocked F1's TV viewing figures this year, Ferrari remains grand prix racing's biggest draw. Its pull-out would be a major blow to the sport.

But this is not the first time that Ferrari has threatened to withdraw from F1. In the 1980s, the team designed and built an Indycar to demonstrate that it could carry through the threat of quitting. But the car never raced and the threat came to nothing.