Ross Brawn wants 'solution' to Ferrari quit threat

Ross Brawn says he will work to "find a solution" that ends Ferrari's F1 quit threat. Brawn was once the technical boss during Ferrari's ultra-successful Michael Schumacher era, but now at Liberty Media he is vowing to improve the sport's racing, spectacle and costs.

A row between F1 owner Liberty and Sergio Marchionne resulted in the Ferrari president's post-2020 quit threat, but Brawn insists the Maranello team is "very important" to formula one. "I worked for them for ten years and carry them in my heart still," he told Auto Motor und Sport. "Ferrari is an icon and I hope we will find a solution that will work for everyone. A great sport is great for everyone and we do not want Ferrari to leave," Brawn added.

However, Liberty intends to even the income playing field beyond 2020 and distribute power more evenly up and down the pitlane. "The sport should be fair to all participants, including Ferrari" he said. "Yes it's true that Ferrari has veto rights, but to my knowledge they never used it. Perhaps they waved it around."

As for the racing, Brawn pointed to MotoGP as an example of a series that is not as fast as formula one, but is arguably more exciting. "A MotoGP bike is 30 seconds slower but it still seems incredibly fast," he said. "It's more important to have cars that look good and can compete against one another. Does anyone complain that the times are 15 seconds slower when it rains?" Brawn added. (GMM)