Statement From Jean Todt on Monaco Fiasco

Ferrari's Jean Todt described last Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix as "a disappointing and frustrating weekend," after Michael Schumacher finished a fighting fifth and Felipe Massa ninth.

The team's performance was compromised in qualifying on Saturday, said Todt. "If there is a Grand Prix where you have to be in a good position at the start it is Monte Carlo. So of course it was not very pleasing to have one car starting from the pit lane and the other car starting from last position on the grid.

"But there are explanations for that. Felipe made a mistake in first qualifying, and if you make a mistake in this context, that's the price you have to pay. It was different for Michael. Michael was on pole until he lost the car in the last corner and then the stewards, after eight hours of discussion, decided that he was due to leave from the back of the grid."

Todt described Ferrari's position regarding the incident which led to Schumacher's times being cancelled. "We tried to demonstrate the evidence that it was a racing incident and it was not considered. As we did not have the possibility to appeal, either, we did not have any other option but to accept it and to try to get the best out of the situation. There's nothing we can do now. The weekend is over, no right of appeal, so we just have to move forwards."

Todt admitted that he was surprised by the reactions of people in the paddock to the incident and its consequences. "But we are in a world where people very easily over-react. Personally, I try not to over-react and try to understand exactly what is happening. I know that the majority of the people around were saying that Michael did it on purpose. We tried to demonstrate what had happened with the information, with telemetry data we had that it was a driver's mistake. He explained all that at length and we had the telemetry evidence which allowed us to understand. We have, in detail, all the evidence of this special episode.