Exclusive: Ferrari's $100 Million F1 Bonus At Risk
I think Ferrari is still in a position of strength here. F1 needs them. They are still the most popular team on the grid.
As much as I love Ferrari, this privilege is a bit last century and no longer warranted. Also, given how non-spectacular SF has been over recent years it proves there is more to winning than just having the biggest budget. Ferrari should therefore not be too concerned if its current preferential $ arrangement comes to an end, and should embrace a new dynamic with a fresh challenge.
Interesting spin about how they'd be better off without $100M I can't believe people can do this with a straight face. Spending cap? "wasting" money on competing technology? This could be worse than Bernie.
+1 Ferrari should shut the critics by accepting to abandon its privilege. Its financial advantage is unfair and will always be questioned. Its future success would look more remarkable for it.
+1-- time for Ferrari to grow up so to speak. The future under Liberty will be interesting. Im glad they want more races and are willing to promote it. The question is will the 'new ' rules actually yield better racing which is what the sport needs. Someone will always get it right but we need a series with more than 1 team/car that is winning. 3 more years of Mercedes is not the formula for success for Liberty. I know that might be reality if other teams do not make a car that can win......
Personal biased "emotional" perspective: Yes it sucks. F1 "non" biased Perspective and Liberty future : I have to think Sauber, Force India, Manor etc. could use this money....think how they have been feeling all this time and when it actually goes into effect. Maybe, just maybe, Lotus and Caterham comes back just to put more cars on the track....if its possible. If Merc. pulls out and is just an engine supplier, some of these teams in the back can buy the engine. It puts even more pressure on Ferrari to succeed which is a good thing.
F1 is dog eat dog. It always has been. And when it comes to value to F1, Ferrari is top dog. I see no reason why they should give up what they earned over the decades.
Today's kids are now tuning in because of celebrities like Hamilton, not because of evocative scarlet machines built from a romantic Modena cowshed and run by a swashbuckling mercurial plutocrat. Sadly, Ferrari is now just one of many global brands with merchandise, albeit a brand with great history. And history is where it's F1 privilege will probably remain.
+1 Ferrari, the mythical team, died when Enzo Ferrari passed away. Since, it's just another team ran by a corporation cashing in on past history.
Ferraris $100m blood money is totally unfair and should go. Equally the fact that only the top 10 teams get prize money is unfair. Both need to change.
It's bad enough that we have government-sponsored GPs. Now we could end up with the Vodafone Grand Prix of Belgium! With pervasive, hyper-transparent marketing of everything, the F1 sport will be deprecated to nothing more than a tweet, though the decline in viewers (which I found startling) noted in Forbes perhaps is evidence that that has already happened.
I think it would be fair if McLaren didn´t get their own smaller historical bonus, if Mercedes didn´t get their "pay me or I´ll leave half the grid without engines" bonus and Red Bull didn´t get their "I have more money than God and have two teams" bonus. I can´t see any of them accepting that. The problem is that teams can reach their own separate agreement with Ecclestone, so political influence prevails over sport and fairness. In an ideal world, the business part of the sport should only be dealed by the sporting authorities.
To that, I would reply that when a participant is given an unfair advantage, it's not a sport. I really would like your assertion put to the test, because I don't believe it's true. Maybe Liberty will call their bluff, and we will see if F1 dies then.
I truly believe that millions will be lost in sponsorships due to the fact that less people will be watching and following the sport.
In my view, it's pure speculation. With or without Ferrari, F1 is going through some sort of crisis. It just needs to evolve into something appealing to the public of today, and I hope that Liberty will think about making changes, instead of repeating the same recipe year after year.
Ferrari may threaten to leave, but they would be fools to leave F1. They generate mega $$$ from F1 and ancillary sales by association. Ferrari will not be leaving F1.
I believe that both Ferrari and F1 would survive if the Scuderia was to pull out. I think their participation in F1 has very little relevance in Ferrari sales. Many Ferrari owners have no interest in F1, from what I hear.
I'm amused that some think Ferrari would simply turn its back on $100M. You do understand that it's being run by a green eyeshade accountant, and that he'd simply close up shop, right? "Right, lads! Not a problem. Do you prefer cheque or cash, then?"
Success in any racing series is all about pushing the rules to the edge and getting the so-called "unfair advantage". That's always been the case with racing. And regarding sport, A lot of the sport is technical and some of it is the driver. If you're thinking "Man, this guy is an over the top Ferrari home boy" you would be correct.
Ferrari has more power than the new owners realize. If it were possible to take money away then Bernie would have figured it out well before these guys