The Coming FIA vs Ferrari War in Formula One
As with all motorsports these days, Formula One is undergoing great changes. This is good news, but the coming FIA vs Ferrari war could rip Formula One apart.
The FIA is the governing body of a variety of motorsports. This includes the top series known as Formula One. The President of the FIA is the brilliant, bizarre, arrogant, idiotic, perverse Max Mosley. Most fans know him as the executive who was caught on film in leather garb [allegedly Nazi inspired] whipping and doing other interesting things to five “professional women.” Given the fact Mosley is 69, it hard to know whether he should be booed or cheered. Regardless, the man has been hell bent on bringing the expenditures in Formula One under control.
Formula One is the undeniably most advanced form of motor racing on the planet. The season is between 17 and 19 races each season depending on an ever changing schedule. For these races, a top team will easily spend $300 million dollars or a lot more developing a car. This has resulted in huge technological breakthroughs that have been transferred to street cars in BMWs, Mercedes and so on. It has also made the sport so expensive that no smaller teams have any hope of surviving.
Ferrari is, of course, the historic Italian exotic car manufacturer. In Formula One, they are the equivalent of the New York Yankees. You either love them or hate them. That being said, they are also the team the championship cannot afford to lose as has been admitted by Bernie Ecclestone. Given this fact, Ferrari has always received favoritism from the powers that be in Formula One. Most people point to it in the races, but it is far more prevalent off the track. Ferrari receives upwards of $80 million dollars more for winning the team championship versus what any other team would get if they won it. This is but one small example of many in favor of keeping Ferrari in the sport.
The effort of Mosley to slash costs is going to create a major war with Ferrari. Why? The cost cutting Mosley wants hurts no team more than Ferrari. The initial issue has to do with the fact the sport wants to modulate huge chunks of the car. This means that large sections of the car cannot be changed, which takes much of the technological advantage of Ferrari out of play. There is, however, one much bigger issue coming down that line that will cause an all out war.
It is the desire of Max Mosley and the FIA to put a cap on the budgets in Formula One. This would mean that each team would have the same amount of money for each season. Put another way, Force India would be given the same budget as Ferrari. Can you imagine Ferrari agreeing to that? There is absolutely no chance. It will lead to Mosley backing down and Ferrari’s power over the FIA becoming readily apparent or it will lead to Ferrari agreeing to leave the sport with other major teams to start a new championship.
Has anyone ever wondered why Mosley and Ecclestone control Formula One? They take a huge chunk of the revenue from the teams. Why don’t the teams just set up their own championship and split the money between them? Well, there are some contractual issues, but the real reason is Ferrari won’t leave because Ecclestone makes it a bad financial decision. He does this by giving them massive financial incentives to stay in the sport. If budgetary caps are instituted, those incentives no longer mean much and Ferrari will have an entirely new view of the situation.
The precursors of the coming war have already become clear. Mosley is openly talking about budgetary caps. At the same time, Ferrari has made peace with McLaren and the other teams. It has also joined in the formation of the Formula One Teams Association – FOTA. Not only that, but the President of Ferrari is also the President of FOTA. You can see where this is headed.
Max Mosley is just a guy. The FIA can survive without him and Formula One certainly can as well. Bernie Ecclestone knows this and he knows Formula One cannot survive without Ferrari. All indications would be this will be handled in private with Mosley being shown the door to an “early retirement.” The relationship between Mosley and Ecclestone has been strained recently, so there is a chance this could all become public and result in F1 being ripped apart. That would be a pity.
Lemmy