Max Mosley on collision course with Ferrari
"In a strongly worded letter to Max Mosley, the president of the FIA, which was leaked to The Times, Luca Di Montezemolo, the Ferrari president, says that caps have been foisted on teams without proper warning. Ferrari claim that the rules will cause only damage to Formula One because of the inevitable wrangling about policing them and allegations of cheating."
"Brendon Harley has taken over from David Coulthard as official reserve driver for Red Bull."
Ecclestone threat to halve F1 prize money
"He said the teams wanted the option of leaving F1 included in the latest draft of the Concorde, so “we should revert back to the deal we originally had – 47 per cent of the 'television rights – and they can go where they like. We should be paying a lot less to the teams and charging the circuits a lot less”. According to Formula Money, F1’s industry monitor, the average annual fee to host an F1 race is $23.7m.'
McLaren ‘liargate’ scandal: Grovelling Martin Whitmarsh is symbol of a broken team
"When McLaren principal Martin Whitmarsh grovelled in front of the FIA, they looked at him and saw the symbol of a team whose spirit they have finally broken. McLaren have been crushed to such an extent that the FIA took pity on them."
Lord Mandelson steps in as doubts over Donington Park grow
"Business minister Lord Mandelson has sought a personal reassurance from Formula One ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone over the future of the British Grand Prix amid fresh concerns that Donington Park may not be in a position to host next year's race, Telegraph Sport can disclose."
These are links I’ve bookmarked using Delicious. You can see my Delicious profile here.
Arthur954
1st May 2009, 14:21
Ecclestone ….
I think the pending Concord (dis)agreement is the reason behind the latest Mo – FIA moves in budget caps, crazy rules etc.
If the teams leave, Bernie wants to find some new teams for his show, so he has to make entry into F1 easy for whoever wants to join.
Maybe Ron Dennis did well to leave after all. This crazy world of Bernie and Mo is no place for a giant like Ron.
F1Yankee
1st May 2009, 15:17
McLaren ‘liargate’ scandal…
wow.
Achilles
1st May 2009, 18:19
The mirror, as usual stabbing everything British, in the back, as it happens I am out of toilet paper….
Richard S
2nd May 2009, 7:23
What a load of b**$***s
Keith, perhaps a description next time in the link header.
“Warning – Tabloid garbage completely devoid of any factual information. Spewing and inciting hate. Representative of the rotten underbelly of British jounalism (society).”
OK. You are right to let us know that this kind of stuff is out there, but at least allow us the choice of avoiding it next time!!!
Mussolini's Pet Cat
1st May 2009, 18:13
I’m not a great fan of Ferrari & Luca Di Montezemolo, however i do think he has a point. How on earth are the going to police this?
Becken
1st May 2009, 19:25
Today is the 15 anniversary of the death of Ayrton Senna:
http://allenonf1.wordpress.com/2009/05/01/remembering-senna-and-ratzenberger/
Mussolini's Pet Cat
2nd May 2009, 12:06
we know
scunnyman
1st May 2009, 22:21
These comments from Mosley and Ecclestone remind me so much of my brother.
His opinion is the only valid opinion in the world and he listens to no-one else, even they are making total sense.
This is just the same as messrs Mosley and Ecclestone. They come up with lame ideas and won’t listen to anybody else’s opinion. They are so blinkered in what they think formula one needs and always have done.
I am not totally against a budget cap. I do think £40 is maybe a little too low £60 may be better a pill to swallow for the big teams.
Having a 2 tier system in F1 will only make things worse.
And Bernie is again acting like a spoiled child with his wanting to give teams less money instead of more that they deserve.
The sooner we get to a more balance racing series the better in my opinion.
scunnyman
1st May 2009, 22:26
Now Bernie says they should be charging the circuits less.
Well get on with it then. It’s not upto the teams to decide what the circuits are charged.
If anyone in F1 should get paid less it’s Bernie and the cvc.
sasbus
2nd May 2009, 13:24
This is soooo interesting.
Would love to see (probably will not be intersted to see) an F1 championship without Ferrari.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/74995
I wonder how much more interested the fans would be to se prodrive, etc instead of the real teams such as Ferrari, Williams, Mc Laren.
It is very dangarous for the FIA to not consider the teams with their huge fan base. No teams means also no fans.
GeorgeK
2nd May 2009, 17:37
Yeah, I loved the way Max slams the door in anyone’s face who dares to consider alternative opinions other than his own.
For Luca to suggest they have an “alternative” arrangement with FOM and the FIA was dumb. Maybe THIS is the first sign of a crack in FOTA solidarity. Ferrari looking out for themselves, gee what a surprise!
The Limit
3rd May 2009, 2:58
I think the cracks in the Ferrari/FIA relationship started to appear last year following the Singapore race in which Montezemolo slated in public.
Regardless, you have to be suspicious of change. The defuser row this year only highlights how easily rules can be exploited by teams. The now infamous split defuser used by Brawn Gp, Williams and Toyota, only add more air disturbance or wake behind the cars. The very thing the 09 cars were supposed to not do, in an effort to aid overtaking.
Its not surprising in the least to see men like Montezemolo and Briatore complaining in public as they are getting their high profile backsides kicked. They are highly motivated, successfull people not used to tasting the dust of others.
The problem for them is that, like it or not, the FIA will pass these new rules, and Ferrari and others will have to adapt. It is up to them how they want to go about this.
Chaz
5th May 2009, 18:04
Ferrari have a great history in F1 but I think they have far too much sway and influence and seem to get conciderably more from the F1 money pie than is fair to the others.
The question currently being asked by the media is “can F1 survive without Ferrari”. I think an equally important question that needs to be asked is “can Ferrari survive without F1”? Lets have a poll on this question…
Den
13th May 2009, 11:45
F1 born with one purpose 60 years ago, competition between manufacturers, everything was based on technological improves.
within years everything is changed and rule by rule the manufacturer have a lot less space to present new solution (or at least they can evolve only in the fields and with methods in a close standard the FIA impose).
Capping the budget to 45-50 M$ (ferrari last year spent 460M$) and adopt more strict standard on the engine means no more tech developing and less difference between the manufactures.
it’s not bad per se but simply means a different kind of race, based not anymore on car developing but on the driver skill.
So every one is rich enough can just buy an engine and start to race the F1 (most soccer team cost a lot more then 50M$) and doing that gain some visibility and even dream to start to sell cars on the market. [we can even have a MUTD or Real team race for F1]
car building experience and projecting facilities will no effect anymore the result of the race because with all the same amount of money to invest in research you will have pretty much same results (and even you will notice a difference between manufactures the evolving will be very slow).
F1 is wrong, you can’t have two different winner at the same time, they have to choose:
or car based (means no tech rule and open budget) or driver based (means all teams must have the same car or the same budget like the soccer teams play with the same ball, [and think that even the soccer team have open budget]).
Personally i’d love to see two different race, in one i can follow my country paladin like we do in most sports (swimming, chess, karate, or whatever u want), in the other one we can enjoy an open budget and free rule car based race where ferrari and all other manufactures can improve theyr cars with billion of $.
the second one is the original meaning of F1 race, and is where all of us take advantage everyday having in our car tech solution invented just for F1 in the past 60 years to win the championship (everything that is in ur car for cheap price was developed with high cost by f1 team: abs, ebd, suspension, …. just name it).
In this kind of race i can follow any team i like, doesn’t matter the nationality, i can enjoy the show just to look how they can improove the cars around only one ruel: fuel consumption
…i don’t know i can imagine an electric veichle vs gasoline one, or perhaps a very sophisticated system of clutch and suspension, or a computer that adapt the “shape” of the car to improve speed and fuel consumption.
i think Ferrari made the right choice.
In a race where research doesn’t matter anymore bcose all teams have the same budget and strictly tech rule, they can’t evolve too much so there is no space anymore for them.
Ferrari build cars and they need/must to spend money on that to say we’r better then the others.
Girl Puppy Names
23rd September 2010, 3:38
I really like puppies. I just got one a week ago and it has not been trained yet and has bitten me a couple of times but its practically nothing to be concerned about, i can train it nicely. I hope :-)