Ferrari "Never Involved" in Chicane Talks

With the Maranello-based outfit the only team not to back plans for the chicane, the team have been at the centre of blame from some quarters about not trying to find a solution to prevent the mass boycott of the Indianapolis event by the seven Michelin teams.

But Todt is defiant that his team acted correctly in their approach to the situation - and believed it was not a matter for them to try and help out the opposition.

"We were never involved with those discussions (about a chicane), " said Todt on Monday.

"Never involved. We were never asked about that. Whether we would have agreed or not is another question, and I tell you right now, to be sincere, we would not have agreed, but we were never asked about that. But is it serious to decide to put in a chicane half an hour without anybody testing it? It's ridiculous.

"If we knew beforehand that there would be a chicane, we would have come prepared for a chicane. We would come with different tyres, we would have a different set-up on the car, and we would have different gear ratios

"Honestly, why should we compromise? We try to do a good job with Bridgestone and we did not do a very good job with Bridgestone since the beginning of the year. We arrive, we are in a situation where we see from Friday that we are competitive, we don't have any problems with tyres so for us it's an opportunity."

Todt admitted that Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone did consult him with some options to try and find a solution to the crisis, but he believes it was more a matter for the FIA to sort out the problem than the team.

"Number one it's an FIA decision. Number two, if something happened on the other side; if, for example, we don't have enough grip for qualifying and we ask for three laps because we have good grip after the third lap, or if we ask for a chicane because we feel it would be safer for our tyres, I think everybody would laugh at us. So you just have to be prepared to react to a situation.

"You have two sets of tyres which you chose from, one normally is soft, the other one is hard and then you make your choice. I feel sorry for those who could not compete, but I feel more sorry, again, for the supporters."

Todt claims that Ferrari would have pulled out of the event themselves if the Michelin team's offer of making it a non-Championship race had been accepted by the FIA.

"Would we have competed for no points? I say no. If this race would have been a race without points which cannot be, it would have been out of the FIA standard, we would not have started."

When asked whether there was any way for the Michelin runners to have competed then, Todt said: "I would say three options. One, they could have changed their tyres. Two, they would have to compromise in this specific corner.

"And three, they could have used the pitlane. If these cars cannot take this corner, what can I do? You would have had a race."