A political storm broke around Ferrari Monday as F1 most famous team suffered an outpouring of vitriol from Italy’s corridors of power for throwing away the World Championship.

After the calm acceptance of defeat from Luca Di Montezemolo, the Ferrari president, in the aftermath of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday came an extraordinary backlash of recrimination and heartbreak at home. While Sebastian Vettel, the new world champion, was being lauded at a party in his honour, Italian Government ministers were calling for heads to roll at Ferrari, starting with Di Montezemolo.

Roberto Castelli, a minister for infrastructure and transport, waded in by blaming Di Montezemolo for the pitwall decision that ruined Fernando Alonso’s race and cost him the world title. But Roberto Calderoli, a senior cabinet minister in the Government of Silvio Berlusconi, went farther, he resign immediately for a “demented strategy”.

“Despite the ability of the excellent Alonso, Ferrari has managed to lose a championship already won,” Calderoli said. “We are ashamed of this insane strategy and he [Di Montezemolo] is guilty. He should get out of Maranello immediately so he does no further harm to Ferrari.”

Only in Italy, it seems, can a motor racing team reach so deep into the national psyche. Feelings were running so high that the Scuderia issued an impassioned statement last night (Monday) in an attempt to dampen the fury that could yet result in some heads rolling.

“The night has not lessened the bitter taste after the sad end to an extraordinary season,” Ferrari’s statement read. “Instead, we are sorry to see that there are some politicians on the outside who are ready to jump onto the winner’s bandwagon then push for the guillotine when things go badly. And we do not understand anyone who revels in self-defeatism, who sinks into the culture of ‘everything has gone wrong, we have to start all over again’. They are vices that are very Italian, that we must learn to shake off.

“We have returned Ferrari to where it should be — fighting for victory. It also proves that, apart from two exceptions, since 1997, we have arrived at the last race either as world champions or among those fighting for the final victory.”

Stefano Domenicali, the Ferrari team principal, is thought to be first in the line of fire, although Di Montezemolo was known to be furious on Sunday night with team strategists who became so obsessed with focusing on Mark Webber, Vettel’s Red Bull teammate who had started second in the championship, that they forgot to mark the German.

Alonso, however, refused to blame his team. He wrote on the Ferrari website: “It hurts to come so close to the goal and see it slip away like that, but that’s the way sport goes and we have to accept it...”