Step Forward Luca di Montezemolo
For a sport at the cutting-edge of technology, some things never seem to change in Formula One. Team mates reportedly don’t get on, rival teams make accusations of cheating (it’s not nearly so glamorous when it involves the accountants’ books though) and Ferrari stomp their feet and say they’re going to quit the sport they’ve been an almost continuous part of… except that they’re not going to do anything of the sort.
Yes that one again. Formula One would be a poorer place without Ferrari, in all senses of the word poorer but I certainly don’t think it’s finally going to happen this time.
For one thing, Luca di Montezemolo’s demands don’t seem that unreasonable. The sport should be road relevant? Isn’t it already trying to by developing energy recovering systems and switching to small, more efficient turbo engines – a realistic pattern for the future development of road cars? “What is not so good is that 90 per cent of performance is now based exclusively on aerodynamics and another negative is that ours is the only sport where no testing is allowed,” said di Montezemolo. There are not many who would argue with that statement, indeed Ferrari are late in joining this particular party.
Of course, that old chestnut of the three-car teams has come up again – it does make me laugh when di Montezemolo starts banging that particular drum: “Finally, there’s the issue of the third car, which mark my words, we support not so much for our own interests but more for those of the sport in general,” pleads Ferrari’s president. “We believe the interest of the fans, media and sponsors could increase if there is a bigger number of competitive cars on track rather than cars that are two or three seconds off the pace, being lapped after just a few laps.” It’s an argument that makes sense but that boat has sailed, there are twelve teams and realistically, four would need to step aside and Ferrari’s threat to move to pastures new is hardly going to make a difference to them in that case. Besides, if Ferrari really want to “provide opportunities for the youngsters [they] are bringing on in the Ferrari Driver Academy” they can always follow the Red Bull model and run a ‘four-car team’. Ultimately, the back of the grid is a drama story in itself and it’s why all the teams are valued in their own way – Formula One is much more than race day as the gossip columns and Bernie Ecclestone’s more wilder throw-away comments pay testament to.
Despite the comments flying around the internet since the interview came out, what’s almost certain is that actually, these newspaper headline generating comments have nothing what-so-ever to do with FOTA, the FIA, FOM, the concorde agreement or anything Formula One. Greece’s Prime Minister has stood down and it is feared that Italy, the eurozone’s third biggest economy, could become the next victim of the debt crisis. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi faces a crunch vote on public finance on Tuesday – Berlusconi on the rack as the BBC’s European editor describes it. And waiting in the wings to replace him…
…step forward Luca di Montezemolo.
Don’t take this as a dig at you or the great article you have written, but what does it mean to have the third biggest economy in the eurozone? There are many ways of working it out. What they wouldn’t want to say is how rich Greece are by this system!
Kimster(Quote) (Reply)
“ours is the only sport where no testing is allowed,” said di Montezemolo.
Well he shouldn’t have championed the testing ban as part of his nutty RRA then, and anyway I can’t be the only person who’d prefer more races over more testing.
Should’ve gone with the cost cap Monty, you could test as much as you like then … Well until the money ran out that is.
As for running 3 or 4 car teams, I’d prefer the return of 1 car teams, because that would certainly make the introduction of new teams a bit easier … Oh Lola have approached the FIA about becoming team 13 by the way, they say they’re better placed financially than they were last time around.
Karen(Quote) (Reply)
Will GDP do you?
It’s one thing the relatively minor members such as Greece and Ireland being in a pickle as the Eurozone can comfortable cover them defaulting on their loans – Italy (third to Germany and France) would be far more damaging and push it deeper recession. Not good for the UK either as it’s our main trading partner. Still an if though – hopefully it won’t come to that as Italy as a whole isn’t in THAT bad a state, just it’s government.
Mav(Quote) (Reply)
Did you know derivatives count into GDP (As it is technically a service!)? And they are ticking time bombs of debt. GDP is no longer a safe way of measuring a countries economic strength or wealth.
Yes but who are their loans to? What I don’t want to understand (well, provoke is the more suitable word) is how a 50% haircut of Greece’s debt is possible while keeping the western european banks alive? Is this debt even real, or is the 5 letter f-word coming to the fore again?
And don’t these tranche payments just sound like a ponzi scheme using fiat currency? Give them new money to pay for previous debt and so on? Does this ever end? Or do the printers have to run out of ink before they do that?
There are more states yet to go off. Italy will have to be put onto life support like Greece. Germany tried to get out but couldn’t/didn’t. They are all waiting for the moment someone has a brainwave and goes back to the gold standard again.
Kimster(Quote) (Reply)
There is a great set of diagrams illustrating this on the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/10/23/sunday-review/an-overview-of-the-euro-crisis.html
The “possible scenario” has started unfolding
Now back to the F1…
Mav(Quote) (Reply)
Yes, but these governments seem to be discovering “new” money every week through “accounting errors”. Germany found $78 billion through an “accounting error”. Pretty good accountant I say. Ireland decreased their debt by $4 billion by a similar “system”
Anyway. F1. I do disagree with his aerodynamic statement. I think aerodynamics are a great and interesting part of F1, and the more important it is, the more interesting it is imo.
Kimster(Quote) (Reply)
I disagree with him in that while tenths of a second still matter, they can be found by improving the aerodynamics and spending the equivalent of Greece’s GDP in the process, whatever the downforce is reduced to.
Mav(Quote) (Reply)
I really wish Luca would find a big rock and crawl under it. I really wish Ferrari had disappeared in the 50s with Maserati and Lancia.
His argument that three car teams would result in more competitive cars doesn’t exactly tie in with his team’s philosophy of only backing one driver. Would ‘Fernando is faster than both of you’ be any better than the current situation?
I also don’t like all the road relevant arguments because they are nonsense. There is little or no relation between racing and road cars and F1 in its current heavily restricted technical format is far more likely to take from road cars than give to them. Just as it took ABS, power steering, traction control etc etc.
KERS is always quoted but F1 KERS systems are primitive. When Toyota was around they wanted the rules changed because the F1 KERS was more primitive than the one they had used to win the 24 hours of Tokachi. (me neither)
Steven Roy(Quote) (Reply)
Mav,
Very true.
Kimster(Quote) (Reply)
Berluscoi has agreed to resign apparently, so is Luca a shoe in?
Kimster(Quote) (Reply)
Potential successors… http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15635512
That’d be a no
Mav(Quote) (Reply)
Yeah, but what do the BBC know…
Kimster(Quote) (Reply)
You don’t think it is an “as exclusively predicted by Eddie Jordan…” then?
Mav(Quote) (Reply)
Mav,
Considering the BBC cuts I wouldn’t be surprised if it was.
Kimster(Quote) (Reply)
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