Quote:
Originally Posted by M5Rick
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That sounds like he was more salty about Ferrari's inability to compete at the time, and thus trying to throw more shade towards mercedes.
If you read below you can see this:
FIA chief Jean Todt said at the time, “Mercedes, Renault and Ferrari knew for five years what engines they would need to use this year. Mercedes has simply done a better job. Such is motor sport.”
This corresponds to this:
"It's not correct though. 2007 was when the original KERS project began - so the first hybrid work in a loose sense. This was then run in 2009... the four cylinder engine rules were first confirmed 2010, then became a V6 in 2011... by then we had only built one engine block..."
and if you read the original quote:
"Montezemolo told La Repubblica, “Lauda recently confessed to me that Mercedes were already working [on their hybrid engine] since 2007 and that’s why they so adamant during the negotiations to introduce V6 engines from 2014.”
You notice the critical area that Montezemolo did not say directly mercedes worked on their engines since 2007, the reporters implied that was what he meant but he didn't say it. So more hear say and misinterpretations.
If you look at the time line, it is more plausible what occured was what mercedes said, where they worked on kers in 2007 and then developed their engines in 2009 which is 5 years before the regulations exactly like the fia confirmed.
So there is zero concrete proof mercedes built engines in 2007, and there is zero proof mercedes were the ones pushing for v6's. All that nonsense was taken out of context and out of proportion by those trying to smear mercedes's success.