Ferrari Not Bluffing

Ferrari have made it clear they are not being flippant about their quitting threat. They are adamant that they will if cost capping and a two tier formula 1 is introduced.

Ferrari along with Red Bull, Toyota and Renault all object to the cost capping proposal for 2010 by the FIA and they may form a breakaway formula.

Piero Ferrari said "Our first objection is to the budget cap, which we don't believe it's possible to control. The second is that it is wrong that a team accepting the budget cap has more freedom and different technical regulations. If we are on the starting line of a grand prix, we have to stay within the same regulations, the same technical specifications.

Ferrari stated: "It's like soccer. In Italy we have ¬Internazionale, who are winning, and they spend huge amounts of money for the best players. But in Serie A you also have a team like Catania, who have no money. So do you say to Catania, 'You can play with 12 players' and to Inter, 'You must play with nine'? It wouldn't be fair.

But this is what the new Formula 1 rules are like. They're not acceptable at all. ¬
Everybody on the grid has to start with the same rules, otherwise there's no ¬competition and it's somebody else ¬deciding who's going to win.”

The introduction of the cost capping is to lower expenses. However Mr Ferrari states: "This is not because we want to spend money. We want to save money. All the constructors are keen on reducing the F1 expenses.

But you can reduce the expenditure without having a budget cap. And it's not enforceable, anyway. It's difficult enough to enforce the technical rules, as was proved recently by the business of the diffuser. So how can you enforce or control a budget cap?

A better way is by controlling the expenses on the technical side. We are doing it on engines and it will be done next year on the gearbox. We can even introduce limits on material costs - carbon fibre, maybe.

I have good friends racing in Nascar in the United States. They control the costs - the number of ¬mechanics, for instance - and the teams are racing with the same rules for everybody. We could do something like that."

At least Piero Ferrari is attempting to bring ideas to the table and not just problems. However whatever formula they end up in or creating I know I will be following that. If I follow F1 as well… Well that depends who’s in it. Which is what the FIA has to realise. No major teams or drivers to follow means no sport to follow. Would you still follow football if your team wasn’t playing anymore?