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Bernie: Ferrari line up split from F1 ... and future of sport should be electric
BERNIE ECCLES TONE has warned that Ferrari are prepared to start a rebel world championship if they do not get their way in negotiations over Formula One’s future.
The sport’s former chief executive made the incendiary claim on the eve of pre-season testing, which starts in Barcelona tomorrow. He also envisaged the next generation of F1 cars being electric — a souped-up version of the pioneering, battery-powered Formula E series that began in 2014.
Ecclestone, now chairman emeritus after 40 years of direct control over the grand prix world, said: ‘ Some people have a new series in mind. Sergio[ Marchionne, the Ferrari president] has spoken to people about it. If he decided to leave, he would leave.
‘ If the FIA don’t do what he thinks is right — and what would benefit Ferrari — he would go.’
Ecclestone, 87, issued the sobering warning as he cleared his desk at Formula One’s old headquarters in Knightsbridge. He will split his time between London, Switzerland, where he has business interests, and Brazil, where his 39- year-old wife Fabiana runs a coffee farm.
It is 13 months since Ecclestone was sacked by Liberty Media, the American media conglomerate who bought the sport for £6.4billion, and he has been ostracised by them. He is meant to be an adviser, but his replacement at the apex of management, Chase Carey, rarely, if ever, seeks his insight.
But, in a three-hour interview, Ecclestone speaks from his unique vantage point of experience. Calls from race promoters, team bosses and manufacturers still light up his mobile phone.
Ecclestone handed Ferrari a bespoke deal to keep them until the end of 2020 — a $100million annual bonus and a veto over rule changes, which reflects the Scuderia’s status as the oldest and most glamorous marque on the grid.
Carey has to renegotiate Ferrari’s involvement from 2021 and beyond. The American wants to level out payment among the teams, but that would risk losing the scarlet cars. Marchionne has al ready said Ferrari are ‘serious’ about considering a ‘divorce’.
Ecclestone explained: ‘Ferrari got more than anyone else for one simple reason: they had been in Formula One longer than anyone.
‘ The bottom line is simple — Formula One i s Ferrari and Ferrari is Formula One. Go anywhere in the world and they don’t think about Ferrari road cars; it is Formula One. I would hate to see Formula One without Ferrari.’
Top teams turning pirate has worked before, particularly in 1981, when Enzo Ferrari decisively swung his support behind Ecclestone and Max Mosley after they staged a rebel race in South Africa. That allowed Ecclestone to wrest control of Formula One’s commercial interests from the governing body, the FIA. ‘Mr Ferrari always supported me behind the scenes,’ said Ecclestone.
To create a breakaway series now, Ferrari would likely need the co-operation of race promoters, and Ecclestone believes they would get it. ‘No promoter would be happy to see Ferrari leave,’ he said. ‘ They would join Ferrari immediately if a new series started with the same elements as now but was cheaper for the racetracks.’
New engine regulations are due to come in as part of the 2021-and-beyond renegotiation, with Ecclestone advocating a radical blueprint. ‘Let’s start a new allelectric Formula One — Formula One for the future,’ he said. ‘They just need the balls to do it.’