Luca di Montezemolo is determined to see three-car teams replace the struggling backmarkers in F1 and has said that successful American racing organizations Penske and Ganassi would be ideal candidates to run a third Ferrari.The Ferrari president has been keen on running a third car for a couple of years and his most recent attempt was a possible co-operation of Scuderia Ferrari with Cypher Group during the election of the 13th F1 team, but his arguments have so far fallen on deaf ears at the FIA.
Still, Italian magazine Autosprint is reporting that the influential Formula One Teams Association (meeting on Thursday in London) is debating the idea with the sport's governing body.
"The teams and the FIA are currently discussing the possibility [of three cars] in three years."
Moreover, Montezemolo confirmed: "On the question of a third car, we are determined. It would be nice to see a third Ferrari fielded perhaps by a private American team. I'm thinking of a team like Ganassi or Penske."
He continued noting that the current crop of new teams were not adding to the sport and failing to match the potential of their drivers.
"If a team does not have the money to be in formula one, they can go to GP2. It is disheartening to see someone like [Jarno] Trulli many seconds behind. Think what Jarno could do with a Ferrari given to his team."
Italian Trulli currently drives for Team Lotus, which finished its debut season as the best placed new team in 10th. Previously, some teams - notably Williams - were opposed to three car teams, but Montezemolo insists that more and more members of the F1 paddock are coming round to the idea.
"[Bernie] Ecclestone agrees and [Frank] Williams, who was against it before, understands now. Don't you think it would be nice to see a team like Penske or Ganassi deploy a Ferrari with an American driver?"
Neither Roger Penske or Chip Ganassi have confirmed such rumors yet, as the two American motorsport tycoons are trying to build their own racing empire in America and they feel hesitant to expand their business in a costly F1 project. Nevertheless, Ferrari could be able to provide all the necessary resources and expertise for a successful participation.
In such a scenario either one of Ganassi's skilled drivers Champcars champion and ex-F1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya, Indycars champion Dario Franchitti or talented Graham Rahal could easily line up with Italians Valentino Rossi and Jarno Trulli or even Champcars and F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve to form an American based Ferrari F1 team. Chip Ganassi's organization had a fabulous 2010 season winning all traditional races like the Daytona 500, the Brickyard 400, the Indianapolis 500 and the 2010 IZOD Indycars championship. However organization's current racing program has already been expanded and includes an extra Indycars team with Graham Rahal and Charlie Kimball as drivers so it won't be easy for his organization to develop an unknown and resource-demanding F1 project soon.
On the other hand, Roger Penske have recently came to a successful sponsorship agreement with Shell/Penzoil to fund organization's both NASCAR and Indycars programs that includes 2 racing cars in NASCAR Sprint Cup and 3 racing cars in IZOD Indycars Series. Yet Penske who expressed his F1 desire in the past, might be more willing to make the big step into F1 with the help of Luca di Montezemolo and his new partner Shell which is also long-term partner of Ferrari as his organization has already competed in F1 during 70s.
