Extract from "How To Build A Car":
"The spring of 2014 was a depressing time, with no apparent light at the end of the tunnel. I was considering my options, when who should approach me but Niki Lauda from Mercedes. There began a series of talks about me joining Mercedes, Niki paying me a couple of visits at home in order to discuss it. I was tempted but not that much. To move to Mercedes, the team that was clearly going to win the championship that year, 2014, effectively replacing Ross Brawn, just didn't feel right, and I would have felt like a trophy hunter. So I thanked Niki but turned that one down.
"I was also approached by one of the LMP1 sports car teams. That was very interesting in principle; to be involved in a team with the aim of winning Le Mans remains on my bucket list. But the team is based in Germany and that bit didn't appeal. Then came a third approach, and it was from Ferrari. I'd been courted by them before, but this time they meant business. I traveled to visit Luca Montezemolo, the President of Ferrari at the time, seeing him at his farmhouse close to Tuscany. We held serious talks and their offer was amazing. Luca wanted to give me the whole Ferrari operation, road and race car. The promise was of an almost film-star lifestyle and the most ridiculously large financial offer, well over double the already generous salary I was receiving at Red Bull.
"I was also approached by one of the LMP1 sports car teams. That was very interesting in principle; to be involved in a team with the aim of winning Le Mans remains on my bucket list. But the team is based in Germany and that bit didn't appeal. Then came a third approach, and it was from Ferrari. I'd been courted by them before, but this time they meant business. I traveled to visit Luca Montezemolo, the President of Ferrari at the time, seeing him at his farmhouse close to Tuscany. We held serious talks and their offer was amazing. Luca wanted to give me the whole Ferrari operation, road and race car. The promise was of an almost film-star lifestyle and the most ridiculously large financial offer, well over double the already generous salary I was receiving at Red Bull.
"I had a very difficult decision to make, and it was one that cost me many nights' sleep as I went over and over the various factors; family, cultural, work differences, the chances of success or failure, the repercussions of either...
"But in the end I thanked Luca and turned him down."
Lifted from this article:
http://www.gptoday.com/full_story/view/ ... d_Ferrari/Watching F1 since 1986.
