The pride of making Formula 1 great
Ferrari now has a list of its F1 achievements on its home page which ends with the question: "Who wants this marvellous story to end?"
Montezemolo to the fans: “Thank you for your support”
"It is important to know that we can count on the support of our fans all over the world and that our fans completely share the motivations, which brought us to take such a decision."
BMW to run improved KERS in Turkey
"BMW Sauber is planning to runs an improved KERS system at the Turkish Grand Prix next month, team boss Mario Theissen has said."
"The French newspaper Le Figaro is reporting that Renault will soon come out in support of Ferrari, Toyota and the Red Bulls teams in saying that they will not enter the 2010 World Championship unless the FIA changes its regulations."
Ferrari quit threat is empty, writes Oliver Holt
"The Italians say the new rule will turn F1 into a twotier sport because teams that adhere to the cap will be allowed more technical freedom than teams who go over it. There is a simple solution to that problem, though. Don't spend more than £40m."
David Coulthard: "The fact that Jenson's team then changed to a two-stop, which ultimately paid off, would have been a crushing blow for Rubens. He would only have had limited contact with his race engineers via the team radio, so he would still have been very much in the dark about exactly what had transpired. What we therefore saw was the 'un-briefed' emotion of a man who, by his own admission, "could not understand" how he had failed to win the race."
Ferrari put 60 years of glory on the line
Quotes an 'FIA insider' saying: "The major trauma seems to be, 'OK, intellectually we see what the FIA is trying to do, there is some good thinking going on here, but the transition from A to B is the trauma'. Part of the argument against a budget cap is Mosley's insistence that the teams who sign up to the voluntary cap may run a superior technical specification – with an engine that revs to 19,000rpm rather than 18,000 and a more effective aerodynamic configuration, thus offsetting the advantage the established teams have of spending more on research and development."
Ferrari raise stakes with threat to quit Formula One in rules row
Bernie Ecclestone: “I’m not one to talk about perfect marriages. But this is a perfect marriage. Formula One is Ferrari and Ferrari is Formula One. It’s as simple as that and it is not going to change.”
New F1 blog
F1 review blog – Providing F1 fans with the latest F1 reviews
Another new F1 blog
"I doubt Ferrari would have made such a move without knowing it had the teams with it."
These are links I’ve bookmarked using Delicious. You can see my Delicious profile here.
scunnyman
13th May 2009, 19:58
I’m gonna contradict myself here.
Yes i’d like the Ferrari story to end because of too much dominance.
But of course i do not want Ferrari to leave F1 either.
I want Ferrari to go back to the days when i respected them. And to have F1 back where i can respect it too.
The only way i can see this ever happening though is for the removal of the terrible twosome.
WE CAN ONLY DREAM HUH?
Achilles
15th May 2009, 6:46
Please read Mark Hughes column in Autosport as it would seem that the ‘Marvellous dream’ has just had one of it’s best kept secrets revealed, which would suggest that Ferrari have been holding the other teams ‘hands up their backs’ without the other teams being aware of it.
scunnyman
13th May 2009, 20:03
It’s nice to see the Ferrari president showing gratitude to it’s loyal fans, but i doubt he’d even care at any other time.
I’m sure he would not be taking the team down this road of threatening the FIA if he did not have the support of his fans. He really would not want to alienate the Tifosi i’m sure.
It’s a pity the FIA didn’t take notice of what the fans think.
If it were not for the fans there would be NO formula one.
scunnyman
13th May 2009, 20:06
I wonder if any of the teams will be running kers at Monaco?
If BMW think there is no gain from using kers then why would any team?
scunnyman
13th May 2009, 20:12
AM I BEING A THICKO??????
I don’t understand why there needs to be a budget cap to enable new teams to enter F1.
If a new team can only afford £40m then they should only spend £40m and do the best with the regulations they have.
Just because a team spends multi hundreds of millions does not guarantee success, just look at Toyota for example.
And who is to say a team using a smaller budget can’t be successful. If they can design a car to win then surely they can do it cheaper. The FIA seems to think so hence the CAP.
scunnyman
13th May 2009, 20:24
I’m not too sure about these new blog sites.
I tend to get most of what i want from Keith’s site here.
I can’t grumble at the quality of this site and i hope he carries on for decades to come. Even after he becomes FIA president lol lol.
scunnyman
13th May 2009, 20:26
Joe Saward’s blog about the pivotal role Monaco might have in any breakaway series or even in negotiations to secure a better deal for the teams is an interesting one.
Clive
13th May 2009, 20:51
Oliver Holt obviously doesn’t know the first thing about F1. Par for the course amongst tabloid journalists, I suppose…
Alex Bkk
14th May 2009, 0:34
Ferrari poker from 1986…I think there are some pretty good players in Maranello.
“Enzo Ferrari offered FIA that he end the CART project there and then in return for the FIA allowing a maximum of 12 cylinders for the new generation ‘atmo’ F1 engines. The FIA accepted the deal and changed the rules.”
Ferrari at in CART would have been interesting to see. What I like about this show down is that they actually built a car…I wonder if there are proposals and actual plans for a new “Formula” in the safes of the current breakaway teams that they plan to beat silly Max over the head with.
http://forix.autosport.com/8w/march90ca-ferrari.html
sean
14th May 2009, 1:17
Keith.Why don’t you run a poll on who would watch F1 if none of the top teams participated you could send the results to the FIA.
Patrickl
14th May 2009, 8:33
Yeah this Oliver Holt sounds like a Dolt. Sure it makes sense that they COULD run a racing team for 40 million, but currently they have a 400 million racing team. What are they going to do with the rest of it?
The damage of this ludicrous overnight downsizing is hardly bigger than pulling out altogether. Especially since the whole new league seems like it’s going to be another mess too.
Apart from the budget coming down too fast, the teams are also (very rightly) upset that they are completely ignored. During the friday press conference you could see how the teams just get rule changes shoved down their throats everytime and they are starting to gag.
There is a Technical Workgroup and even they were not informed of the pending rule change. Mosly and Ecclestone just change the rules on a whim and that simply cannot continue.
I guess it’s idle hope that they can renew F1 and ditch Ecclestone and Mosley, but still they need to put FOTA in so they become an active part of the organization behind F1. Not just the dictatorial money maker and the perverted lawyer/rule freak.
Ecclestone decided he wanted the teams to knock it off with the asking for more money. The easy way is to make the teams cost so much less that they don’t need more money. Even better if you can downsize it by so much that you can actually pay them less! To keep Mosley on board he probably promised him he can stay on as the FIA president.
Patrickl
14th May 2009, 8:37
The teams commenting on FIA is halfway through the press conference. Starts whith the first question from the floor.
DGR-F1
14th May 2009, 8:50
It just shows how far away from commercial reality Max and the FIA are.
Sure, the Teams and the Manufacturers want to cut costs, because of the economic climate more than the costs of F1 itself, and I am sure they are working on ways to do it gradually, but how long ago were they notified of the budget cuts for 2009? Only a month at the most.
So, the Team has to approach its Board of Directors for a decision, and they may have to consult with the Parent company.
That doesn’t happen overnight, unless you are running your organistaions by dictat, as Max and Bernie do.
This is a totally unrealistic situation for any company (no matter how big) to be placed in at short notice.
Why are FOTA even bothering to respond to these idiots? All the major teams should leave F1 at the end of the season and leave Max and Bernie to face the consequences……
Jeffrey
14th May 2009, 13:09
Ok. I’m from singapore here.
i am a bif F1 Fan of course.
But having these “budget cap is totally unrealistic. Bernie and Max seriously need to consider what the teams say… They cant just cut budget and change rules as and when they want.
the F1 Teams had like 1 month to respond and to think if the want the cap or less tech freedom. ridiculous. i serious cannot understand why bernie and max and co. just do things as they like.
If i not wrong, when i went for saturday qualifying during the SG GP, most of the fans are supporting : Ferrari, McLaren, Renault and Toyota. Not sure about others. I might be wrong here but from the grandstand me and my bro were sitting from, its seems like it is like that. there are 4 teams i mentioned. 3 of them are going to pull out. F1 should understand that fans make what they are. Its there main area of revenue.
With all the fans gone- Merchandise, ticket even advertising sales will be affected.
Max and co should go through this properly… not just put it as and when they want. 2 tier F1 is nonsense. Might as well call it Twin 1.
Just my 2 cents.
John H
14th May 2009, 13:15
I quote part of the cost cap regulations:
Just how wishy-washy are these cost cap regulations – couldn’t organise a ps up in a brewery springs to mind. I support Ferrari 100% and I never thought I’d ever say that!
Bigbadderboom
15th May 2009, 12:12
For Sure….LOL, I find myself siding with the prancing horse on this, maybe this stupidity from the FIA will finally bring some unity from the teams, where do the tv rights holders find themselves if McLaren, Ferrari, Renault, BMW or Red Bull pull away, and even form a breakaway league? The TV rights are then worthless as F1 will no longer be the product they bought!! It’s got to have Bernie worried.
Chaz
15th May 2009, 14:22
A lot of Ferrari stories here. At least their publicity machine is working well lol…
persempre
17th May 2009, 11:29
Late in on this one, sorry.
The Ferrari fans will follow the red cars wherever they race. Nothing new there. They already do it in various races & series around the world.
The mention of Mark Hughes was interesting. Have you seen his article in the Times?
It takes a slightly different tone.
Thankfully some F1 fans can see past petty team rivalry & realise there is something much more fundamental at stake.
The big question all F1 fans should be asking themselves is do we want a series in which the teams have no say whatsoever in the running of the sport, the making of it`s rules etc. Or would we prefer the teams to have that say?
So far at least, the teams know they must try to stick together on this. They know Max & Bernie`s rule relies on “Divide & Conquer”. Wouldn`t it be good if just for once the fans could follow the teams lead & leave petty squabbling behind for the overall good of the future of F1?