http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns14234.html "We are a small company and we have to cover the costs of Formula 1," Ferrari's Jean Todt told The Times, Bernie Ecclestone's preferred newspaper when it comes to leaks. "We discussed very often leaving Formula 1 because it was costing too much money. Ferrari could have been in a position to stop being in Formula 1. Yes, that is sure. The trend of the evolution of rising costs without extra revenues put the question on the agenda. At the end of the day, we have to act in the interests of Ferrari. We needed to agree the future for the sake of security. We couldn't just go off blind in a new direction and it was up to us to secure the future of Ferrari inside Formula 1."
Well, I think Ferrari felt it was time that their value to the sport came back in some rocksolid dollars.
I can't help but think that this is insane. When was the last time MLB gave the Yankees money? Last I checked, the dominating team usually winds up giving the lessers either money or draft picks in just about every sport (excluding some racing, etc.) could this be why F1 is such a debacle? You just won the superbowl, 5 years in a row, so you get 4 first round picks and here's 40% of your operating costs... If Ferrari had to pay Minardi, Jordan, and Sauber at the end of the season it would certainly make the next year more competitive than it would have been. And isn't that the point? I'm all about spreading out more of the money to the teams, just not in one direction. And the huge kicker, their "contribution" is already paid back five fold every season in merchandising, Ferrari sells something like 40% of licensed products in F1. Just my $.02, but they get out of F1 a hell of a lot more than they let on. If they're so concerned with money, they could always, God forbid, downsize their obscenely large racing department. Without F1 they wouldn't be able to saturate the market with 50 million $25 t-shirts making everyone feel like part of the Ferrari family (how quaint..). Then they would be reduced to trying to sell those $400 cashmere sweaters to us poor suckers that frequent the owners site. When I read this stuff I feel like I'm taking crazy pills... yes I've reduced this post to resorting to Zoolander quotes.
