Montezemolo's Revenge: Ferrari chief to start Le Mans
Ferrari's participation in Formula One is so firmly entrenched in the identities of both the world championship and the Italian automaker that its abandonment of the series is almost unthinkable. But thinking about just that, according to some commentators, is what Ferrari chief Luca di Montezemolo wants people to start doing, as a spate of heated correspondence flies back and forth between Maranello and Paris, seat of motorsport's governing body, the FIA.Montezemolo, who also serves as chairman of the Fiat group and head of the Formula One Teams Association, has been invited to ceremonially start this year's 24 hours of Le Mans by the ACO, where he will be joined by Scuderia Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicalli. And while to some it may seem entirely benign, others insist that it's a shot across the bow of the SS Max Mosley, the FIA chief who's been pushing new cost-cutting regulations to which Ferrari, among several other teams, is vehemently opposed. But could Ferrari really leave Formula One? This isn't the first time the idea's been floated, following a recent campaign to form a renegade spin-off series and Ferrari's Indy program in the 80's, to name just a couple of examples. The hard, cold truth that Mosley must be realizing is that Le Mans series endurance sports car racing has grown in profile to rival that of Formula One, and even if Ferrari's participation in the series is currently limited primarily to GT2, where it has taken numerous class victories, its heritage at the iconic French track is nearly as firmly entrenched as it is on the world's grand prix circuits.
[Sources: Autosport and F1-Live | Image: ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP/Getty]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
hashiryu 2:51PM (5/03/2009)
The gloves are off now. Max & Bernie need to be put in their place. Everything they do is in their personal interest, and not for the better of the sport. Let's go Ferrari & FOTA!!!!!!!
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zamafir 2:58PM (5/03/2009)
Awesome, go to LeMans, compete in P1, i'd like to see ferrari struggle to dominate against Audi and Peugeot. In fact, i'd fly to france to watch the battle live.
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Colin Smith 3:02PM (5/03/2009)
With F1 reduced to identical engines and fights over bits of carbon fibre add-ons all the fun has gone.
Le Mans is a proper race and without Ferrari F1 is dead anyway..
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sublime.intervention 3:44PM (5/03/2009)
Have you heard about the voulentary 'budget cap' introduced next year? $40 million (I think, possibly € or £), but it opens up a whole raft of rules for those budget capped teams to exploit.
No limit on the amount of driven wheels (ie, 4 wheel drive)
No limit on engine revs (ie, no longer identical power outputs)
Double the KERS output power (ie, 160bhp boost)
Moveable Front/Rear wings
And quite possibly a couple of other things I've forgotten.
hashiryu 4:22PM (5/03/2009)
Sure, let the teams that are capped have more technical freedom, but with the budget cap, they can't take advantage of it.
It's plain retarded.
Flea 3:10PM (5/03/2009)
obviously Mosley needs more spankings.
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TigerMil 11:32AM (5/04/2009)
Good one! But so five minutes ago...
D Fisk 3:37PM (5/03/2009)
Ferrari wants out now that its not winning every race. They are being sore loosers.
They are picking up their cars and going home.
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mcampasini 3:51PM (5/03/2009)
wont be the first time they did that. they did in lemans years ago after they started getting beat by the shelby's like iomtt says below.
IOMTT 3:44PM (5/03/2009)
Just want to point out that the last Ferrari overall victory at LeMans was 1965. Imagine that, a 44 year and counting LeMans victory drought for one of the most storied sports car marques.
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Rick C. 6:37PM (5/03/2009)
Don't be a history revisionist. Tell the whole story. Yes, the last overall win by a factory Ferrari was in the 1960s. Since then, they've done what??? The answer is: Competed completely in Formula One. Yes, a 333SP won in 1998 and a 430 took it last year, not factory entries. If they choose to return to P1 in force, you better believe there will be success.
pmiddle5 9:18PM (5/03/2009)
there is no way they will win in P1. Can you imagine Ferrari having a diesel prototype? Thats the only way they could win with how the rules are currently set
zamafir 1:03AM (5/04/2009)
@pmiddle5, agreed. Ferrari's having enough trouble in F1 where damn near everything is set by strict confines, let them into P1 and they'll get slaughtered.
IOMTT 9:09AM (5/04/2009)
@ Rick C, You mean the Ferrari 512 and 312 were not legimate efforts by the factory??? Not to mention the 330 series before that. Fact is, they were unable to be consistently successful against Ford and then Porsche. You would think with all that F1 knowledge, they could have been more competitive. But then again, an F1 car in the early 70's was slower at places like Spa and Monza than a Porsche 917.
IOMTT 9:15AM (5/04/2009)
Rick, I also missed a factual mistake in your reply. The 333 SP never won LeMans overall.( Not sure it even competed due to FIA regs ) It did win Daytona I believe. I am not sure, but I think the overall winner at the 1998 LeMans 24 was the Porsche GT1.
Slick33 4:39PM (5/03/2009)
I hope I wasn't the only one that got a good laugh at the "SS Max Mosley" comment, given his recent nazi dominatrix fetish. lol
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Vik 5:21PM (5/03/2009)
I'm still laughing...
Mazda FTW! 4:00PM (5/03/2009)
Not gonna happen. The Italian public would never accept Ferrari pulling out of F1 and they would see it as running away from a challenge.
But yes, this English vice-grip on F1 needs to be broken. And without Ferrari, F1 is just a EPL sunday match. Most of the exotic tracks are already gone and the cars look like riced tooth-brushes.
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sparrk 5:58PM (5/03/2009)
what's "SS Max Mosley" supposed to mean ? ;)
i'm all for GT racing getting bigger and F1 becoming a low budget racing series with all the drama and behind the scenes bullsh*t they want.
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LUKA 6:01PM (5/03/2009)
Mosley says F1 could survive without Ferrari!!!
http://motorscoop.blogspot.com/2009/05/mosley-says-f1-could-survive-without.html
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