Alesi backs Ferrari over F1 quit threat

Oct.28 (GMM) Former Ferrari driver Jean Alesi says the famous Italian team is right to threaten to quit formula one over the prospect of standard engines.

The Frenchman, who raced with the Maranello squad between 1991 and 1995, said the FIA's plans to mandate the design of engines from 2010 is "absurd".

"I have exactly the same thoughts as Ferrari," Alesi, 44, told the Italian newspaper La Stampa in an interview.

"It's an absurd idea, because with a standard engine you would not be contesting a real constructors' championship."

He defended Ferrari's right to threaten to abandon the sport it has contested every year consecutively since its modern inception in 1950.

"Ferrari is F1's flagship, and whoever has proposed this is not thinking about what is good for Ferrari nor F1.

"With standard engines, Maranello would be right to step out," he said.

Alesi said even the global financial crisis is no justification for the proposal.

"It has nothing to do with it," he said, "but rather it is a very deep and very complicated political issue, about which I do not want to say any more.

"It goes for all manufacturers. It is in effect asking BMW, Toyota or Mercedes to sack their engineers and buy an engine from the supermarket."

Alesi said that not only should the proposal be "withdrawn", its authors should publicly "apologise".