Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo gave no financial details when he announced the deal on Saturday.
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And Montezemolo, wily old politician that he is, deftly steered the conversation back to Fisichella.
Montezemolo and Della Valle talk all the time, often for no reason at all.
Di Montezemolo could give no guarantees about the team's driver line-up for next season.
Montezemolo comes from old Piedmontese aristocracy and his family tree is heavy with generals, cardinals and surgeons.
I'm sitting in a restaurant with Montezemolo when he suddenly calls Della Valle out of the blue.
As a left-wing minister remarked afterwards, three-quarters of Mr Montezemolo's speech was about politics rather than business.
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Luca di Montezemolo, Ferrari's boss, expects hybrid systems to be available on all its models within five years.
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"Hamilton is a great driver, " Di Montezemolo said at Ferrari's HQ in Maranello.
"Michael will be a super assistant to Jean Todt, " Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo said at Monza on Sunday.
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Montezemolo puts the price of the investment so far at 1 billion euros.
And so, to the front of the grid of challengers roared Mr Montezemolo.
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Luca Cordero di Montezemolo said Italy had reached "the point of no return".
Vettel, who clinched a title hat-trick in Brazil, "had an amazing car and is a great driver, " said Di Montezemolo.
Roberto Calderoli, a minister from the far-right Northern League party, has called for the team's president Luca di Montezemolo to quit.
Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo told Italian reporters this week that Barrichello had a strong case for staying with the team.
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The theme is taken up vigorously by Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, chairman of both Fiat and Confindustria, the Italian business lobby.
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Mr Montezemolo knows all about business turnarounds: he rescued Ferrari and has helped to pull Fiat Auto back from the brink.
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It helps that Montezemolo's friends are named Diego Della Valle, the founder of Tod's, and Seragnoli, one of Italy's great industrial families.
When Schumacher broke his leg in 1999, the Italian company's president, Luca di Montezemolo, said they would contact Montoya about replacing him.
But Ferrari chief Luca di Montezemolo says his position is "not binding".
One is that Mr Montezemolo does not own half his country's main television channels and therefore cannot rely on them for support.
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The first reel of the Montezemolo movie starts when he returns briefly to Italy while studying for a masters in commercial law at Columbia University.
Ecclestone denied he was in Madonna to smooth tensions with Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo, who has been critical of the way F1 is being run.
But Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo put paid to that back in September by claiming that he lacked the experience required for F1's most successful team.
The 65-year-old Di Montezemolo also warned earlier this year in an interview with CNN that costs were an issue, "we are spending to much, " he said.
Mr di Montezemolo said that "if Berlusconi continues to put his ambitions before the good of Italy" his political journey would "end in the worst way".
Di Montezemolo conceded that Ecclestone had achieved "significant things" but that at 82 years of age questions should be asked about his continued stewardship of the sport.
Mr Montezemolo makes it clear that Italian business is deeply disappointed with Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right government, which had promised so much when it took office in 2001.
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Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo insisted he would not swap the English 2008 world champion for Felipe Massa, who lost the title to Hamilton by a single point.
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