Ferrari launched a new attack on the FIA last night, blaming Max Mosley, its former president, for Toyota’s decision to follow Honda, BMW and Bridgestone in quitting the sport.
The move came as it emerged that Renault is considering its future in Formula One. An emergency board meeting was convened in Paris yesterday to decide whether the French car giant should continue with its team, switch to being just an engine supplier or follow Toyota by leaving.
As Formula One was still coming to terms with Toyota’s decision to leave with immediate effect, Ferrari, the oldest team in the sport, claimed that the move had little to do with tough world economic conditions and a lot to do with the perceived mismanagement of motor racing’s pinnacle series by the Mosley regime.
In a statement on its website the Italian luxury car manufacturer, whose former team principal, Jean Todt, has taken over from Mosley, listed the companies that have quit Formula One and added: “In reality the steady trickle of desertion is more the result of a war against the big car manufacturers by those who managed the sport than the effects of the economical [recession] that affected Formula One over the last years.”
Comparing the vicissitudes of Formula One to Ten Little Indians, the Agatha Christie novel in which the murderer is discovered too late, the statement added: “In Christie’s detective novel, the guilty person is only discovered when everybody else is dead, one after another. Do we want to wait until this happens or should we write Formula One’s book with a different closing chapter?”
The attack on the FIA and the implication that more companies are set to follow Toyota’s example, something that was given credence almost immediately by Renault’s inquiry into its future, was dismissed by Todt’s advisers.
It was being pointed out that Toyota’s withdrawal had, in fact, been predicted by Mosley and that it was because of his fears for the future of the sport that he had tried, but failed, to win acceptance from the teams for a voluntary budget cap. Times Online
Formula One should still have more teams next season than the 10 that competed in 2009, with four newcomers already confirmed and the former BMW-Sauber team also in line to return under new owners.
However Ferrari, the sport’s most successful and glamorous team, said the new entrants were no substitute for those that had gone.
“Can we claim that it’s a case of like for like, just because the numbers sitting around the table are the same?,” asked the website.
“Hardly and we must also wait and see just how many of them will really be there on the grid for the first race of next season in Bahrain and how many will still be there at the end of 2010.”
Formula One manufacturer teams clashed repeatedly with Mosley this year, even threatening to set up their own championship over the Briton’s plans to introduce a budget cap as part of radical cost-cutting measures.
Mosley stepped down as International Automobile Federation president last month, with former Ferrari team boss Jean Todt winning an election to replace him. Khaleej Times
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