It’s the eternal question, which tends to crop up any time there’s a new commercial agreement being negotiated or political spat exercising the minds of the Grand prix mandarins: Can Formula One do without Ferrari?
It’s a question to which Bernie Ecclestone and others with a commercial and emotional interest in F1 racing have, over the years, inevitably answered: not really.
Bernie’s attitude comes a little grudgingly, one can be sure, because it’s tough enough trying to whip the FIA into shape without having the grandest of the ‘grandée’ teams to contend with at the same time.
It must be especially irritating to him that Ferrari managed to negotiate a special deal in the early Concorde agreements that gives them an exalted status over the other squads. And if it annoys Bernie, you can imagine how the denizens at McLaren, Red Bull, Williams et al feel about it.
Of course it’s occasionally been useful over the years to have an extra powerful influence to muddy the pitch a little when the fighting gets messy. Divide and conquer and all that, but generally Ferrari have been a bit of a headache for Bernie and the FIA.
So, given Luca di Montezemolo delivered the almost annual Prancing Horse, foot stamping, nostril flaring ‘change the rules or we’re out’ speech at the Ferrari World Finals last weekend, it’s time to ask ourselves the question again? Can F1 do without Ferrari.
When I was growing up, Ferrari was almost everything that anyone could want from a Formula One team. They had the best and coolest driver, Niki Lauda; the best looking cars – my graphically illustrated underclothes diagram Autocar representation of a Ferrari 312 T2 1976 version with the bigger NACA scoops easily trumped my sister’s David Bowie posters; a charismatic patriarch with extremely intimidating sunglasses that would give Mario Puzzo enough material for a cartload of novels; and a manufacturing facility straight out of James Bond including a test track with closed circuit TV(!).
So Ferrari was everything in F1 back then. The coolest, the richest, everything that every young fan and old race team owner could aspire to.
Now, though, it seems like they’re just another race team. They all have about three wind tunnels each and aren’t allowed use them. The driving talent is spread around fairly evenly amongst the top squads and Di Montezemolo, while I’m sure they all hop to it when he arrives on the shop floor, seems a bit more Gucci than Gotti.
Back in the old days it was a race team that made some sportscars. Now it seems like the race team is an advertising vehicle for a large motor manufacturer. While I’d still like one it does seem like there are more Ferrari 360s and 430s on the roads than there were Fiat 131s back in the seventies (this may be a slight exaggeration but you get the idea..)
The gist of it is that Di Montezemolo’s predictable sabre rattling is getting tiresome and doesn’t, to my mind, carry anything like the same threat that it did when the ‘old man’ was doing it back in the 50s and 60s.
The Max Mosley inspired Resource Restriction Agreement was brought in with good reason and we need to be careful to maintain the conditions which have allowed for the creation of several new teams in the last few years rather than the loss of one.