Ferrari unfazed by Vodafone's departure

The Maranello squad began their relationship with the mobile telecommunications giant in 2002 but their contract will end at the end of 2006.

Di Montezemolo has said, however, that his team are happy because they have already secured a long-term title sponsorship deal with Philip Morris, owners of the Marlboro tobacco brand, and other companies are already queuing up to back them.

And although there are suggestions that McLaren, Ferrari and Vodafone are in discussions about the deal possibly moving to McLaren some time next year, di Montezemolo said the team are in no rush to sort out a replacement sponsor.

"We couldn't offer [Vodafone] the primary role they asked, because we renewed with Philip Morris an extremely important deal for us," the Italian said during Ferrari's media Christmas party. "But we aren't an advertising billboard.

"For us the red and the white have been going on for 30 years. There already are requests for sponsorship, and we have one year to do the selection."