Ferrari make F1 Quit Threat

[E. Becclestone]

www.itv-f1.com says
"Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has warned the world champions could quit F1 unless they are given a bigger share of the sport’s revenues.

http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?PO_ID=31094

EDIT: Please don't post entire articles. Copyright and all that. A link (if available) or the source is good and then just pick out the parts that illustrate the point you want to make. Thanks.
I have also corrected the link site name. /EDIT]

[BIGMOUTH]

storm in a tea-cup

[Kicking-back]

For once, I agree with Bigmouth.

Ferrari do this from time to time.

Remember the 1987 IndyCar they built?

[Adam43]

Autosport.com has picked up Todt saying similar things.
http://www.autosport.com/newsitem.asp?id=39698&s=5
Todt (and Montezemolo in the above article) seem to be saying that all teams should get more, not just Ferrari:

Todt (Autosport.com)
Clearly I feel that we should share more of the revenues. For obvious reasons, as long as you have major manufacturers involved in F1 it will cost money, and then it is very difficult for the small teams to get engines and to find money.

However he is pleading Ferrari's case saying it si hard to spend so much when you are a small car manufacturer:

On our side, it is clear that selling (just) 4500 cars and using F1 as a marketing tool and paying for everything, of course supported by our sponsors, makes things difficult.

[Spudgun]

They have a point. More of the TV money should go to the teams and I've always said so.

If it wasn't for the teams, there would be no F1 and no TV money to start with. Less than half going to the teams is disgraceful.

The majority of the money goes to people who couldn't give a toss about the sport. I know investors should get something back as that is the point of investing, but over half of the revenue?

But the teams only getting 47%? 60% at least would be more fair.

[Alpine Star]

But is he right? The pleading surely shows how even the biggest manufactorers have a financial limit, let's face it, there are now three teams that barely survive Formula one. Clearly enough, Jordan, Minardi and Jaguar (more or less) are on the virge of extinction.

Now am i a strong believer of survival of the fittest, but when i think about just 14 or 16 cars on the grid, where 4 cars can't cope with the top ten are driving chicanes... that is not the way to start 2005.

So if the revenues go up for Ferrari, McLaren, Williams and Renault... they also go up for the others. Hopefully making them more competative too. With the new engine and aerodynamic -rules comming up, maybe they will be more competetive than we could hope for?

Either way,
don't knock it just because Ferrari says so...

[Glen]

One thing you can be sure of is that Ferrari's motivation for wanting more money is not to improve the competitiveness of the lesser teams. Same goes for Mercedes, BMW, Honda etc etc - this is big business for big profit, and the big teams are motivated by that profit first and foremost.

[Armco Bender]

Ferrari have been threatening to quit F1 for over 30 years that I can remember.
Good bye then Ferrari,close the door on your way out.

[Alpine Star]

Offcourse has every team their own agenda concerning money, but we can rule out that the proffit is a higher motivation on a big team than a little team.. Minardi is simply running on fumes handed out by paydrivers, sponsors and left-overs from other teams... If anyone benefits from higher income it will be the little teams...

Ferrari and Williams are at their peak of what money can do, McLaren even spent millions on a motorhome just to look good in the paddock, money that could be better spend if i might ad. More money for them would simply meen that they can improve the Illy-machine in the paddock

The small teams would be able to get a real car or at least a real driver, hired for their ability, not the cash they bring... Well, i just call it as i see it...

[Glen]

Originally posted by Armco Bender
Ferrari have been threatening to quit F1 for over 30 years that I can remember.
Good bye then Ferrari,close the door on your way out.

F1 can't possibly say goodbye to Ferrari. Ferrari is one of the defining brands of F1. The oldest team, the most successful, the best.

[Armco Bender]

They wont quit,they never do.

[RWC]

Of course they won't quite!

...they'll just start up another series with the other disgruntled teams.
Bernie *is* going to lose at long last

[Aysedasi]

With all the cash he's made by now, I wonder if he'd really worry?

[Adam43]

Originally posted by RWC
...they'll just start up another series with the other disgruntled teams.
Bernie *is* going to lose at long last

Who would be the best person to look after the team's interests in this new series?

My guess would be the same person who they asked last time...

[Glen]

If Ferrari et al think that they aren't getting enough out of the TV money why did they sign to the deal in the first place? When Bernie started out they needed him really bady, and he delivered big time. Bernie has made Ferrari and the other F1 teams one monstrous amount of money over the years, but now they've decided that things are too expensive and they need more money - rather than being sensible and looking at ways to limit running costs, which they persistently fail to do.

It is bad enough seeing the top teams squabbling all the time as things are - just imagine the fiasco if those top teams formed their own series. These bosses claim that they need to be in charge more - whereas the truth is that is the last thing that the sport needs.

[Mr V]

Originally posted by Glen
F1 can't possibly say goodbye to Ferrari. Ferrari is one of the defining brands of F1. The oldest team, the most successful, the best.

But surely F1 can't be held to ransom, which is basically what Ferrari are doing.

As someone else said, storm in a tea cup, can't ever see Ferrari leaving F1 myself.

[Glen]

Yes - Ferrari are trying to do that, or at least apply pressure. It's not just Ferrari of course - McLaren Mercedes, Williams BMW, Honda and Toyota were all talking about forming their own series if they couldn't get their way. Most likely they will succeed in getting a little more money - even more likely that the deal will not favour the lesser teams or promote better competition... quite the reverse.

[Dick Spanner]

I believe I'm right in thinking that Ferrari currently get more of the existing pot than any of the other teams currently just for being Ferrari. The only way Bernie will lose is if all the teams stop crying wolf and actually create a new racing series like they keep threatening to. I suspect though that if they went ahead with it, Bernie would throw a huge wad of cash at Ferrari and destabilise the whole thing. As for Ferrari quitting, where else are they going to go?

[Glen]

Can't think that can be right - they might get more money because they score more points and thus get more prize money - but "just because they are Ferrari?". Come off it. Or am I wrong?

[Dick Spanner]

Hopefully someone else can back me up here but I'm pretty sure that it's actually in the Concorde agreement that Ferrari get an extra £5m (I think) more than the other teams.

[Adam43]

I think that there the money is paid to the teams for various factors. There is the performance in teh previous years, but there is also a 'historical' factor, which is realted to how much the team is worth to F1. How this is worked out I don't know, but I guess each team probably negotiated it at some point?

[Knowlesy]

Ferrari mnake quit threat.

Yeah, alright, blah, blah, blah, whatever....

[Dutton]

Ferrari leaving F1? I doubt it somehow.

[Tye]

Yet another threat from a famous racing team. If they want to leave, let them.

It would clearly be a dark spot for Formula 1, however no race team is larger than the sport. It's as simple as that.

It surely won't be the last team to utter hollow threats.

Tye

[Dutton]

F1 needs Ferrari, no doubt about that.

However, Ferrari need F1 just as much (quite arguably more so).