Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne says Formula One’s latest vision for 2021 has some « potentially workable » elements which could help keep the Italian company in the sport long-term.
Marchionne has repeatedly threatened to quit the sport if F1’s next set of rules are not to Ferrari’s liking. He first issued the warning in October last year when F1 tabled its first blueprint for the post-2020 engine regulations.
Engines were one of four areas outlined the proposal, which was presented to the teams earlier this year. F1 wants engines to be cheaper and simpler in a bid to encourage new manufacturers to join the grid, but Ferrari has viewed this as simply dumbing down technology.
Speaking publicly about the new proposals for the first time, Marchionne hinted that he sees some common ground Ferrari can work with.
« I’m encouraged by the change in the attitude that we are seeing from Liberty in terms of the extent of the changes that they’re forecasting in 2021, » Marchionne is quoted as saying by Reuters news agency. « Probably the biggest indication has been the recognition of the fact that the engine regulations need to reflect sort of the nature of the sport. And we can’t really dumb down engine development just to accommodate new entries, right?
« So the stuff that’s on the table now is potentially workable as a system. The economics are not. I think that’s something that we need to go back to Liberty with. »
One sticking point for Ferrari and Mercedes in the original proposal was the suggestion of scrapping the MGU-H — the most technologically advanced and most expensive-to-develop element of the current power units. That part was omitted from F1’s original press release stating its broad vision for the next cycle of regulations.
Marchionne has expressed a willingness to work closely with Liberty Media to find a solution and suggests he hopes the company can make a decision on its F1 future by the end of 2018.
« The important thing for us… is that we don’t touch the nature of the technical development of the powertrains because that is at the heart of what Ferrari does for a living. I think we need to continue to work with Liberty with the commercial rights holders and with the FIA to try and bring about a sensible equilibrium. If we can’t, as I said before, we’ll just pull out.
« But we’re not there today. I think we owe the sport a phenomenal effort to try and bring about closure of these items. We’ll try and get that done before the end of this year. »
http://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/23401616/ferrari-president-encouraged-f1-recent-change-attitude
