Thread: Team Ferrari: in F1
View Single Post
Old 19 Dec 2017, 17:28 (Ref:3788126)   #49
Richard C
Veteran
 
Richard C's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 5,801
Richard C is the undisputed Champion of the World!Richard C is the undisputed Champion of the World!Richard C is the undisputed Champion of the World!Richard C is the undisputed Champion of the World!Richard C is the undisputed Champion of the World!Richard C is the undisputed Champion of the World!Richard C is the undisputed Champion of the World!Richard C is the undisputed Champion of the World!Richard C is the undisputed Champion of the World!Richard C is the undisputed Champion of the World!Richard C is the undisputed Champion of the World!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chillibowl View Post
playing devils advocate...if they can convince a couple of teams to go with them, possibly another engine manu, offer the sport via FTA and/or a reasonably priced streaming service, find tracks that F1/FIA has ignored and/or more races in the USA who here wouldnt watch the new breakaway series?

and its not so much about bringing others with them either...if Ferrari leaves would Merc and Renault be able to justify their budgets to their respective boards any longer? rather would they take this as an opportunity to pivot to FE...a direction they already seem to be investing in?

personally i dont think its going to happen but i do see the threat as legitimate...or at least legitimate enough that they will get what they want during the next round of negotiations.

anyways we have been here before and when it was FOTA i was of the opinion that while the teams may not be bigger then the sport they are certainly bigger then FOM and probably deserved our support over the sport itself.

but BE broke them...not sure Liberty has the stones to pull a BE.
A devil's advocate response!

Ferrari is complaining that it doesn't want simpler or more standardized engines and wants to be able to put their own stamp on their power unit. So they would have to either adopt the current specification (probably the expedient path) or develop their own.

If they adopt the current spec, then that really doesn't solve issues fans care about. If they create a new spec, but don't want simple engines, then what manufacture would want to jump into that series given the risk that it might fail? The only thing that might work is for them to create a very simple engine formula that is less restrictive on design elements. But there is still risk that without a very proscriptive formula, this can result in a large amount of up-front research required to determine what the best solution is. Which is still risky for someone new to jump into.

Who would fund this series? You would need to setup an entirely new organization to run it. I would assume it would not get any blessing from FIA. I expect promoters will not be willing to put up any type of significant money to host an unproven series. If the TV is free to view, then there is really no or little money coming in from that. I expect it would be a large money pit for Ferrari in the short term (assuming it was successful at all). Would Ferrari shareholders approve of that?

F1/FIA could potentially be nimble if they needed to as well. If Ferrari tried a break away, the current series might make concessions to other teams to keep them. While Ferrari is looking to use the exit thread as a strategy to get what they want, any concessions to prevent a break away may not be in the direction Ferrari wants.

All in all, it would be a huge gamble (aka "build it and they will come") for Ferrari. It could all come crashing down. If Ferrari totally walks away from F1 and crashes and burns, they will have lost most of their bargaining power on re-entry to F1 at some later date. This broadly assumes that F1 would survive without Ferrari. IMHO it would be a hit for sure due to so much of the fans being Ferrari centric, but I think F1 would survive and come out on top if there was a break away series.

Personally I would love to see the new owners call Ferrari on this and use this opportunity to break the special Ferrari deal for the next iteration of the Concorde agreement.

Richard
Richard C is online now  
__________________
To paraphrase Mark Twain... "I'm sorry I wrote such a long post; I didn't have time to write a short one."
Quote