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Team boss moots three-car team plan for 2010

Ferrari is pushing for teams to be allowed to run three cars in Formula One next year - with the team boss suggesting he would run Michael Schumacher in one of them.

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo said he will not ease off in his efforts to get the rules changed so Ferrari can run three cars next year - with Schumacher a possibility to fill for as many races as he wants.

"We're continuing to fight until every team has the right to start with three cars in the next season (and one I'd have handed over to Michael with pleasure)," di Montezemolo said in La Stampa. "I prefer three McLaren and three Renault to three 'whatevers'. With BMW gone, there's not much to say but lots to do."

Di Montezemolo said he was "very disappointed" by the news, delivered on Monday night, that Schumacher's neck injury from a motorcycle crash had not healed enough to allow him to race in F1, but said there was no point in pushing the German to try to get in the car.

"They found something that still didn't work," said di Montezemolo. "So it's better not to insist. We wouldn't do that at all. He had the small motorcycle accident in February and on the first laps at Mugello he felt that something was wrong. You shouldn't joke with your health."

Di Montezemolo also revealed that Schumacher himself was unhappy about the development that has kept him out of the F1 cockpit for now.

When asked how Schumacher reacted to the news, di Montezemolo said, "What do you think? He answered with such an enthusiasm to my request - the enthusiasm of a boy and not of a retired champion.

"He lost four kilos; he is the same weight as in October 2006 when he raced for the last time in Brazil. You can imagine how he took it."

And di Montezemolo said that Badoer's chances of keeping the race seat beyond the European GP would very much depend on his performance.

"[We have] faith in Luca Badoer, who's one of us," he said. "Destiny has given him a unique possibility now he has to make the best out of it. We will support him with all we've got."

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