The Formula One season has moved on to Canada and race seven this weekend, but the Max Mosley affair continues to cast its shadow, with Luca di Montezemolo, the president of Ferrari forced to clarify his earlier remarks calling for the FIA president to go.

Reports in Italy suggested that Di Montezemolo had finally reached the same conclusion as most others in Formula One that, despite Mosley being endorsed by FIA members in Paris on Tuesday, his position as president of the governing body of world motor sport remains untenable.

Montezemolo was quoted as saying: “I believe he himself [Mosley] should understand that, at times, it is necessary to say, 'I must leave the place for reasons of credibility'.” The remarks caused a flurry of activity in the Ferrari motorhome here yesterday, with the team hastily issuing a clarification and claiming that Montezemolo was speaking personally and not on behalf of the company.

In a new statement, the team presented their president as saying: “I am happy that Max Mosley has been re-elected. He has done excellent work for Formula One in recent years. With regard to the future, it will be entirely up to him to decide if and when he should take a step back.”

Whether Di Montezemolo meant what he said or not, the feeling in the paddock was that a genie had been let out of the bottle. Until now, Ferrari have said almost nothing about Mosley because the team are close to the disgraced president. The Scuderia are widely regarded as hoping that Mosley will spend his final year in office ensuring that his successor is Jean Todt, the former Ferrari team principal. The diminutive Frenchman is a highly divisive figure in his own right and is a candidate not supported, for example, by Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula One commercial rights holder.

Ecclestone yesterday again called on Mosley to stand down and said that teams and manufacturers in Formula One remain “violently” opposed to him remaining in office. The billionaire gave warning that, in his opinion, Mosley will try to remain in his post until he dies and that he positively relishes the confrontational atmosphere he has created by refusing to resign.

In Montreal, there were mixed messages on the scandal, with Toyota becoming the second team, after BMW Sauber, to call for Formula One to move on. “Now that the FIA membership has expressed its view, we hope that motor sport is able to conduct its activities unhindered by scandal, controversy and negative publicity,” a team statement said.

Formula One drivers have generally refrained from commenting but Kimi Raikkonen, of Ferrari, waded in yesterday. “I think it was his [Mosley's] personal life and it's nothing to do with Formula One. I think it was a good decision [by the FIA assembly in Paris],” the Finnish world champion said.

Raikkonen, who trails Lewis Hamilton, of McLaren Mercedes, by three points in the World Championship, hinted again that he may retire within the next two years and said he is in discussions with Ferrari about his future.

Hamilton, meanwhile, was coy about his father's mishap in a £330,000 Porsche, which he crashed near the family home in Hertfordshire earlier this week. Hamilton said his father, who manages him, is a very good driver. “I had a go against him in go-karts a few years ago, but he was terrible,” he said.