The Canadian GP was this way last year. The majority of the audience was wearing red and most of the shops selling F1 memorabilia were Ferrari items both inside and out of the track. It would be a major loss for F1.
This thread is useless as anyone in their right mind knows that the majority of fans are pulling for Ferrari this year and 25 years ago. Ferrari will never pull out. Oh I forgot there are some not in their right mind.
20 years ago ?? they had no balls then and are only opportunistic now, I see myopia has set in, Ferrari were in all avenues of racing in the 50s and 60s and for such a small company that was amazing, until it came a time they had to decide to either go F1 or endurance and for them it was a no brainer. Porsche took over their mantle in endurance racing and their record in F1 is not as stellar as it should be considering the support they've had from wealthy sponsors but they go in EVERY year aiming for the top prize and never flinch when the going gets hard and I don't expect any different this time BMWs ?? fast taxis
You somehow turned a statement about fair weather Ferrari fans into this. Nice job. As far as I'm concerned, I have the utmost respect for a car manufacturer spending millions of dollars pursuing championships in various series. I have zero respect for "fans" that spend $5 on the hat of a team that is winning now and is the "it" team.
thanks, I thought it was pretty good too I just get sick of the "other team" supporters putting **** on Ferrari and their supporters, why come here and foul our nest, this is a FERRARI site so why should we sit here and put up with this rubbish I like BMWs as family hacks, I have one, but for racing it has always been Ferrari and Bernie knows it , Max knows it and the world knows it, so if Ferrari left F1 it wouldn't die but it sure wouldn't be as popular BMW make great engines, hell even Lucifer thought they were so good that he put one in the MaccaF1 that everyone is so happy to rave about I miss Impy, for all his faults he was a true tifosi, next race Ferrari 1-2
Whatever happened to impy? Btw, did anyone else notice all the blue and yellow flags at races starting about 3 years ago when Renault started to get better? That's exactly what I'm talking about. They came out of nowhere. Now they're gone. I just can't figure out if it's because their "fans" have jumped the bandwagon or if they switched to the orange/purple/white ING colors.
Ferrari existed long before Formula One was created, and ran many other works cars up through the 1960's until focusing entirely on F1. Hell, F1 wasnt even created until the 1950's, while the Targa and MM had been running for almost 60 years already. And the real reason we have street Ferrari's is more because of those long road racing circuits cross country, than anything involving full blown Grand Prix racing. You need a bit of comfort to pull off 1000 miles through the mountains with a road car. Ferrari does not need F1, F1 needs Ferrari. Bernie needs Ferrari. Mclaren needs Ferrari. Ferrari would do just fine without any of them. Probably better than they have done in some time. Ferrari should pull back and take a wait and see approach. Take this season, maybe next, feel things out. I think the whole venue has gotten too unrealistic anyway. To electrified, computerised, way too much aero. Prototype racing would be fun, see them come in full bore. Take LeMans, Sebring, Daytona, I think it would be great. Lamborghini has done fine with no racing background at all. Most of the Ferrari owners arent even big racing fans. Many here are making more of the loss than would be realised. Would it hurt F1? Absolutely. Would it hurt Ferrari? Not a damned bit. And if anyone from Ferrari is monitoring, I say tell FIA to stick it. Forza!! Maybe everyone put thier shields on upside down until Ferrari are vindicated.
I agree that there are fair weather fans like the blue/yellow crowd but over a long period of time there has been a huge fan base for Ferrari, to me it has been a phenomenon for such a small company to command such a huge following, Jag was another team that when they came back into F1 there was a good percentage of their fans who had been hiding in the woodwork and were waiting for there time in the sun but due to the Ford connection and the pushing and shoving with US/Euro relations it was doomed from the start. I am very happy to see teams like Toyota, BMW, Honda and Ferrari that are ballsy enough to put their corporate image out there for all to see, unlike Mercedes who are hiding behind Lucifer and can shed some of the poor press when it fails but will jump on the bandwagon when they win , they are PATHETIC, not Alonso, (I like him as a racer and he was damn funny in that commercial )
well yes and no, F1 was formed in '46, the first WDC was in '50 and Ferrari as manufacturer had his first car on the road in '47 but Scuderia Ferrari existed long before F1 as a team of Alfa Romeos and Rudge motorbikes
you could only do this Paul if your car is a competition car as the shields are only really condoned on race cars shields on cars that have no race history is for the posers (btw I had them on my GT4 but not the QV )
Well, Mercedes owns 40% of McLaren and have in the past expressed interest in purchasing the rest of it. 15% is now owned by Ron Dennis, 15% by Mansour Ojjeh (TAG group), and 30% some middle east government. So they can't just stop an engine deal and leave. I think they should have a 100% factory-backed team instead of this pie chart thing.
I think both Ferrari and F1 could survive without the other if it came to that. To me, F1 is about top class drivers first and then comes teams spearheaded by Ferrari. As long as there are quality drivers like Alonso, Raikkonnen, Hamilton and the future wunderkids there will always be an interest in F1. You watch to see the top drivers battle it out for tenths or 100ths of a second during pole position and dice with each other millimeters away from disaster during the race. The worldwideTV viewing might drop drastically for a couple races or a season or two but it will pick up again. The real damage to F1 would come if say Ferrari goes to some other kind of open wheel racing or sets up an alternative series to F1. This is far fetched maybe, .. but if it happens it will fracture the F1 viewing by a huge amount. As far as the impact to Ferrari ... some of the luster to the cars will go. As others say, it will be another Lamborghini. But Ferrari could put millions of dollars into GT racing and really kick everyone's butt. The only reason Ferrari hasn't won Le Mans overall since the mid '60s is that it hasn't bothered to try. But with $400 million budget (assuming it can retain its sponsors) it could win a lot of world sportscar championships. And there would be a much close tie in to the road car between say a 430 LP and 430 GT than with a F2006.
agreed, like you say, they need to grow some balls ... or are they doing the usual Mercedes thing and waiting for the most opportune time when they have a clear advantage like in the very early days of GP racing, then they jump in dominate for a couple of years, the others start to catch up and then they walk away saying there is nothing to prove ! Sorry, have never had time of day for Mercedes, bloody cowards hiding behind Lucifer this time around with Boss Hog (Haug)
