Marchionne threatens to pull Ferrari out of Formula 1
- Published on 03 Nov 2017 09:21
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- By: Rob Veenstra
President Sergio Marchionne has threatened to pull Ferrari out of formula one. The threat comes after new F1 owner Liberty Media announced plans to change the engine regulations beyond 2020, and just days before details of a planned 2019 'budget cap' are to be announced.
Germany's specialist Auto Motor und Sport reports that 2019 will be a budget cap 'trial year', with no penalties for overspending and the EUR 100-200 million cap to not include driver, top management or marketing costs. "Each team will get an independent FIA accountant assigned to them," correspondent Michael Schmidt claims.
But as Liberty's plans for the future take shape, Ferrari president Marchionne's quit threat is a clear spanner in the works. Italian media quote Marchionne as saying Ferrari "will not play" unless Liberty and the FIA create "circumstances which are beneficial to the maintenance of the brand and strengthen the unique position" of the team.
As for what Ferrari would do if it quits F1, Marchionne suggested Maranello could help establish a new series and "celebrate until the cows come home". When asked how being the president who ended Ferrari's long association with F1 would feel like, Marchionne answered: "Like a million bucks".
However, he acknowledged that F1 has "been part of our DNA since the day we were born". And despite not winning the title for the twelfth consecutive year, Marchionne said Ferrari should be happy with how it fared in the 2017 season.
"We did well considering our starting point," said the Italian-Canadian. "If I had said a year ago where we would be today, nobody would have believed me. We regret that we did not do better, but the car was good and in 2018 we will do much better. In the second part of the season, we suffered a mixture of technical problems and errors of the drivers," Marchionne charged.
"So even if it was painful, we learned a lot from the season," he concluded. Finally, Marchionne denied meddling too much in the day-to-day running of Ferrari, insisting: "No, absolutely not. I only attend strategic meetings." (GMM)
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Replies (10)
Login to replyKevin
Posts: 5,331
We’ve never heard that before..
Barron
Posts: 625
Haha yes! Spot on..But you never know, one day they might do it, and then where would F1 be? Quite honestly, no-one really knows but it might be fun finding out..
krommenaas
Posts: 155
Great, I hope all the manufacturer teams leave, and we get real F1 teams with engines by various new suppliers.
Kean
Posts: 692
All these big teams and their threats of pulling out of F1 if they don't get their way, would they please grow up. I wouldn't miss Red Bull, Ferrari or Mercedes if they quit. I'd rather see independant teams the likes of Williams make up the grid. Simplify the PU regs so more manufacturers like Cosworth, Illmor, Porsche get in the game and supplies the teams.
Harryw
Posts: 107
I hope they do pull out
mcbhargav
Posts: 1,332
and Ecclestone would be ecstatic!
Freguz
Posts: 160
It is about time for them to leave, I would be perfectly happy with that.
f1dave
Posts: 782
Like a bunch of spoiled, entitled little brats in the sandbox, if they don't get their own way they are going home, well, good riddance. Ferrari has had it's way for too long now, time they did leave. I'd love to see the reaction of the tifosi to the decision to exit F1 though, probably world wide violence the likes of which we've never seen.
Twiinzspeed
Posts: 18
I think any company would say as much if not doing so would cost them so much. If everything goes the way FIA/Liberty wants it to, it will hit the big guys pretty hard. They tend to lose Legacy payments, wim alot less $ for placement in the championship, and also loose a ton of $ on sales of the power units. Guys like Merc and Ferrari invested hundreds of millions to develop these engines and now they are supposed to throw that out and even share their research with the little guys to help them battle the big teams. Any CEO worth his salt would have to speak up about it. After all that, they would also have to cut staff by a large number. Like it or not, it only makes sense for them to protect their interests/investments.
Either way, F1 would not have the prestige it does without the big teams.
Xtreme
Posts: 53
All of you want louder and more engine sound. Now Ferrari can change that by vetoing it and now it's Ferrari that to is wrong. I don't get this??? Mecedes and Renault also said that they did not like it. For god sake let them change this crappy engine. I really hope that they leave and start something new. Let see how long F1 than exist.