‘It’s impossible to say no to Ferrari’
WHEN THE CALL COMES FROM Ferrari, it’s difficult to say no. Especially if you are Italian.
That’s why Giancarlo Fisichella jumped ship from the Force
India team with which he’d just claimed only the fourth pole of his Formula 1 career – and very nearly a fourth victory – to contest the final five races of the 2009 season with the Scuderia.
“It was impossible to say no to Ferrari,” says Fisichella of the invitation to race for the team straight after he’d finished less than a second behind future team-mate Kimi Raikkonen in the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa. “Especially for me, because I was coming to the end of my career. It was going to be my only chance to drive for Ferrari in F1.
“I was in a difficult position because at that moment the
Force India was competitive.
I’d been on pole at Spa and finished second, and even if I didn’t have good results in the final five races with Ferrari, I still think it was the choice of my life.”
Fisichella reckons that his stand-in role at Ferrari in place of the injured Felipe
Massa provided the perfect exit to F1. It was time to call it quits, he reckons.
“Maybe if I could have found a top drive, my choice would have been different,” he explains. “There was a possibility to continue to race in F1, but not with Ferrari. I didn’t want to stay in F1 with a small team and fight for 14th, 15th or 16th position. I was almost 37 and had done nearly 230 grands prix. I’d won a few races, made a few pole positions, I thought it was time to decide to go a new way.”
Fisichella’s decision was to stay with Ferrari and dovetail F1 testing duties with a GT programme, initially racing an AF Corse Ferrari 430 GT2 in the Le Mans Series in Europe alongside Jean Alesi.
“I’m happy with my decision and have no regrets,” he says. “It gave me this opportunity to keep racing with Ferrari. I’m an Italian, so racing for Ferrari is great.”