F1 minus Ferrari: Ferrari boss Luca Di Montezemelo says it could happen!
Ferrari Boss and former spearhead of Ferrari’s F1 campaign has come out strongly, yet again against the FIA, the governing and administering body of Formula 1. Following a Pre-Christmas media lunch hosted by him at Maranello, Italy, Luca Di Montezemelo was at his outspoken best and opened up to a flurry of questions by the media about his views about the recent rule changes in F1 and the sport in general. Here are a bunch of excerpts from Mr Montezemelo’s conversation with the press and we leave you, our esteemed reader to decide on which way the sport is headed.
We are at the crossroads. We have Formula One in our hearts and minds but we don’t want to be in a Formula One prison. There could be three scenarios. Firstly, the teams could stick with Formula One’s current rights holders, private equity firm CVC Capital Partners. Secondly, the teams can find new owners but stick with the same business model. And finally, the could teams break away and promote their own series like they do in the NBA. For me the presence of Bernie is a priority because Formula One can’t be ruled by the Stock Exchange. We need people with credibility, personality and experience. But in the end we can always find a different promoter. At the end of the day this business is not so complicated. the sport must beware alienating its core fans. My son can go around the world with his girlfriend for less than the price of two tickets to Monza. And it’s nice to have new tracks but we need to be careful. We must keep the historic circuits, like Suzuka, Sao Paulo, Silverstone and Spa. It’s important to have heritage, credibility and history in Formula One. I’m all for improving sustainability but and with the four cylinder 1.6 litre turbo engine I have to accept because we don’t want Ferrari always to be polemic but personally I don’t like it. It is too far. And I agree on the need to cut costs but this pauperistic approach to Formula One is not good. Cheap is different from inexpensive. We want Formula One to be associated with innovation, with pushing technology.