Ferrari have been included on the official entry list for the 2010 Formula 1 World Championship, but it is, of course, not as simple as all that.
If you are a fan of the sport, you will be keenly aware of the possibility that Ferrari may not be part of the action next year, despite their inclusion on the FIA’s list.
The Italian giant once again reiterated, following the release of the FIA’s official list, that it will not be part of the championship after the end of the current campaign, if the conditions attached to its entry are not met.
The FIA and Ferrari are playing hardball with each other, of that there has been no doubt for some time. The two – like kids who are best buddies but have fallen out – are being stubborn, and both want everything to work out just fine. Neither could imagine life without the other.
We are, however, not dealing with children, but instead powerful and experienced organisations. Naturally, both have said they do not necessarily need the other one.
But is the greatest potential tragedy of a situation of this kind a real possibility – will the stubbornness take the arguing pair over the finish line before they reach a desirable compromise?
Unfortunately, yes, it could happen, because both have been badly hurt by the other in recent times.
Of course, Ferrari are not the only one of the current F1 teams with conditions to be met before we can finally confirm who will and will not be on the grid next season. They will, however, be by far the biggest causality if things are not straightened out by when the FIA says they must – Friday, June 19.
However, the underlying desire that the two have not to part company with their long-term best friend is what is likely to be the magnet that brings them back together.
The FIA knows that Ferrari has the biggest fan base of anyone, and also that the name is synonymous with Formula 1, even to those who could take or leave the sport. In truth, it is even to those even who couldn’t care less.
Ferrari, meanwhile, are fully aware that the best place for potential punters to see just how fantastically fast and sleek their products are is as part of the F1 circus. The classic red never looks so good than when powering down a straight at the end of the opening lap of a Grand Prix, with the rest trailing in its wake.
What’s more – although businessmen put business first – is that Ferrari folk love F1, for all the arguments and disagreements they have had with the FIA over the years about it. That affection is another crucial element in what will surely be an argument that results in a happy ending.
Ferrari may be a little more testy right now than at other times in the past, with the team’s cars struggling to keep up anywhere near to the rear of the sport’s current fastest. Perhaps they still resent the FIA for bringing in the clean slate-producing changes it did between last season and this.
And if the budget cap does come in, then the chances of Ferrari becoming an also-ran increase still further.
That is the biggest issue – the budget cap – but these two buddies will stop short of tearing their companionship apart for good. And perhaps the old cliché will ring true; whatever fails to kill the relationship between the FIA and Ferrari may well ultimately make it stronger than it ever has been before.
Let’s all hope so, because don’t they just make such an entertaining pair of scamps?