I have just read a lengthy interview with Paul Stoddard on the recent happenings behind the scenes in F1 (see here ) and I have been left completely disgusted at the attitude of Ferrari and the FIA.
Here is the general outline of events.
Untill mid 2004 Max Mosley and the FIA were strongly in support of the small teams, and cutting costs to ensure their future in the sport.
However when the teams forming the GPWC announced that they did not want the FIA as its sanctioning body, things got nasty.
With Ford having announced that it would be leaving F1, and Jordan and Minardi facing an uncertain future, the very weekend that the teams were travelling to Brazil, the FIA faxed through the new technical regulations (technically illegal, since the Concorde agreement offers no provision for such a thing) with the added sting that if the teams did not respond their answer would be assumed as being "yes". (Again, illegal).
The teams had a hasty meeting, where all 10 teams were represented, and talked about the new proposals.
A second meeting was scheduled, but Jean Todt, busy with Schumacher's big crash in testing, was accidentally not invited.
He assumed that this was a dileberate ploy by the other teams, despite insistance that it was a genuine oversight, and refused to attend any other meetings that weekend.
At the first meeting the teams all agreed that costs needed to be cut, and this could be done by restricting the number of days testing, and switching to a single tyre supplier, both moves opposed by Ferrari.
The teams agreed that it was possible to cut 30% from the larger team's budgets by implementing these measures.
Why did Ferrari oppose these measures?
- Ferrari don't pay for testing, so restrictions wouldn't save them money.
They are paid $30-35 million per year to test by Bridgestone, and own two test tracks, so they do not need to hire tracks.
- Ferrari plan to dominate F1 untill the end of 2006, a plan which would be hampered by the reduction of tyre manufacturers.
Ferrari's shameful attitude can be seen clearly in December.
For the teams to pass a motion to get the single tyre supplier for 2006 - they needed to inform the two tyre companies officially before 31st Dec 2004.
On December 8th Ferrari anounced that they were "absolutely opposed" to the single tyre move.
On December 9th a meeting, at which the motion to introduce the single tyre for 2006 was to be passed by the 9 other teams, was suddenly cancelled by Max Mosely.
On January 28th 2005 - past the deadline, knowing that Ferrari cannot lose their tyre advantage before the end of 2006, Ferrari are now "in favour" of the single tyre.
You may recall that there have been two high profile meetings between teams and the FIA in Jan. 2005.
The first, on the 25th, was a proposal by the 9 teams to sit down with all of their technical and engineering people and hammer out a plan to cut costs and increase the spectacle of F1 in the future.
The second was on the 28th, which only Ferrari attended.
In a cynical PR move Max Mosley announced that the 9 other teams were not committed to cutting costs because they didn't attend.
The teams didn't attend because they believed that a meeting of such importance shouldn't be held at 2.30 on a Friday afternoon.
Another indication of how closely Ferrari and the FIA are "working" to ensure domination is the introduction of the V8 engine for 2006.
The 3.0 V10 is "protected" until the end of the Concorde agreement - 31st Dec 2007.
The regulations that this is being changed under - 7.5 - is concerned with safety.
This regulation states that the only aspect of "safety" that can be changed is with regards to passive safety, not things that affect performance - the engine for instance.
Despite this the regulation has been pushed through by the World Motorsport Council anyway, despite the requirement for the WMC to consult the F1 Technical Working Group before introducing such measures not being observed.
Guess which team are happy to run the V8, despite the massive increase in development costs?
That's right - Ferrari!
They are overjoyed because, according to Ross Brawn, they weren't convinced that they could keep their performance advantage provided by the engine untill 2008 - when the engine would have changed.
So what are we left with?
On one side there are the 9 teams:
McLaren, Williams, Renault, BAR, Toyota, Red Bull, Jordan/Midland, Minardi and Sauber.
All of which want to reduce expenditure and increase the spectacle of F1 by:
- Limiting the no. of tyre companies to 1
- Limiting the ammount of testing
They are so commited and united that BAR apologised to the others after it accidentally ran a third car during testing.
Because Ferrari are not joining in the voulentary restriction in testing they will be effectively racing themselves in their own "championship within a championship" in 2005, with different rules to the rest of the teams.
On the other hand there are Ferrari and Max Mosley.
Ferrari want to block any rules that stand in the way of them an total dominance between now and the end of 2006.
Mosley wants to introduce new rules that have actually increased expenditure and have made the smaller teams even less competative than they were to begin with.
Sorry for the lengthy post, but I hope this has given you a better insight into the workings of Scuderia Ferrari - Total domination whatever the cost.
Even if that price is the F1 series itself.