Given the large economic and commercial interests at stake, there was a certain amount of controversy surrounding this decision. After the loss of the first G.91 prototype, the French government preferred to pursue development of the locally designed Étendard instead. The British government similarly ignored the competition to concentrate on Hawker Hunter production for the same role. The Italian government had elected to order the G.91 for the Italian Air Force prior to the results of the competition being known. These pre-production machines would later go on to serve for many years with the Italian aerobatic team, the "Frecce Tricolori", designated as the "G.91 PAN".