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Last week Bernie Ecclestone was calling Ferrari and Formula One “a marriage made in heaven, one of those super things that work well”.  This was after Max Mosley’s suggestion that if Ferrari didn’t like his new rules they could sod off.

We know that Ferrari are Bernie’s favourite team but considering his recent divorce from former model wife, Slavica (possibly costing him £1 billion), I’m not sure he’s someone I’d want to be taking marriage advice from.

Tomorrow, Ferrari go before the French courts to seek an injunction preventing the introduction of the new rules.  They are relying on a secret deal made in 2005 between Ferrari and the FIA that gives the Scuderia veto power over any new regulations.  A deal that Max Mosley doesn’t seem to think is valid anymore.

Legal action.  Shady deals.  Threatened boycotts.  What ever happened to racing?

Luckily we have Bernie to lighten the mood.  Speaking to The Times, when asked about the court action, Ecclestone said:

It’s good, it keeps it in the bloody newspaper.  They should have done it before – idiots.

FIA President Max Mosley met with representatives of the teams in London on Friday in an effort to resolve the deepening crisis over budget caps and a “two-tier” rules system.

The FIA want to introduce an optional budget cap of £40m in exchange for increased technical freedoms but the teams are worried the new rules will create a two-tier Championship where cost capped cars could be up to two seconds per lap faster than uncapped cars.

So far five teams (Toyota, Red Bull, Toro Rosso, Ferrari) have said they won’t race next year under the new regulations.

Despite six hours of “friendly” discussions, the meeting broke up when Mosley received a text message informing him that Ferrari had started legal proceedings in France to prevent the introduction of the new rules.  Emerging from the meeting Mosley said:

During the meeting it became apparent that Ferrari has made an application to the French courts, and I don’t know the details, but it is to apply for an injunction to stop us doing what we want to do

Apparently, the injunction is based on a 2005 agreement made between Ferrari, the FIA and FOM which, in return for extending the Concorde Agreement until 2012, gave Ferrari the power of veto over any new technical regulations (as well as some extra cash.)  Ferrari lawyer Emmanuel Gaillard explains:

We have to register between May 22nd and 29th and that means accepting the new rules, but these rules do not conform with the commitments taken in regards to Ferrari.

The trouble with all these agreements is that they are shrouded in secrecy so no-one really knows the details.  Hopefully more information will be made public when the case is heard on Tuesday but I still wonder if the basis of the Ferrari legal challenge is Appendix 5 of the Sporting Regulations which seems to suggest rules may only originate from the Sporting and Technical Working Groups.

Image: Ferrari

Ferrari dropped a massive bombshell today.  After a meeting of the Board of Directors, Ferrari issued a statement saying they would not compete in the 2010 Formula One World Championship unless the new regulations are changed.  This makes Ferrari the fourth team, after Toyota, Red Bull and Toro Rosso, to announce that they will not compete in a two-tier Championship.

When Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo first expressed his displeasure with the new regulations Max Mosley said “the sport could survive without Ferrari”,  an inflammatory statement that Bernie Ecclestone has been trying to smooth over ever since.

Could Formula One survive without Ferrari?  I suppose it could, in some form, but it wouldn’t be the same.  Ferrari are the only team to have competed in every Formula One Grand Prix in the Championship’s 60 year history and they are the most popular team, by far.

This is a warning shot, fired ahead of di Montezemolo’s meeting with Mosley set to take place later this week.  I hope that some kind of compromise can be reached, but whatever happens, it will have to happen soon.  The deadline for entries to the 2010 Championship is a little over two weeks away.

In their statement, Ferrari also made criticism of the way the sport is being run, specifically the way the FIA have attempted to force through rule changes without the consultation of the teams.  I have to agree.

Under the leadership of Max Mosley, the FIA has become an adversarial organisation that seems hostile to the very sport it is meant to support.  While Bernie Ecclestone is obsessed by the almighty dollar, Mosley seems obsessed by power.

If Mosley will not compromise and Ferrari were to leave Formula One, I’m sure other teams would follow them.  What would happen next is anyone’s guess but whatever it was, it is the fans that would be the losers.

What do you think?  Could F1 survive without Ferrari?

The Ferrari statement in full:

The Board of Directors examined developments related to recent decisions taken by the FIA during an extraordinary meeting of the World Motor Sport Council on 29 April 2009. Although this meeting was originally called only to examine a disciplinary matter, the decisions taken mean that, for the first time ever in Formula One, the 2010 season will see the introduction of two different sets of regulations based on arbitrary technical rules and economic parameters.

The Board considers that if this is the regulatory framework for Formula One in the future, then the reasons underlying Ferrari’s uninterrupted participation in the World Championship over the last 60 years – the only constructor to have taken part ever since its inception in 1950 – would come to a close.

The Board also expressed its disappointment about the methods adopted by the FIA in taking decisions of such a serious nature and its refusal to effectively reach an understanding with constructors and teams.

The rules of governance that have contributed to the development of Formula One over the last 25 years have been disregarded, as have the binding contractual obligations between Ferrari and the FIA itself regarding the stability of the regulations.

The same rules for all teams, stability of regulations, the continuity of the FOTA (Formula One Teams Association) endeavours to methodically and progressively reduce costs, and governance of Formula One are the priorities for the future.

If these indispensable principles are not respected and if the regulations adopted for 2010 will not change, then Ferrari does not intend to enter its cars in the next Formula One World Championship.

Ferrari trusts that its many fans worldwide will understand that this difficult decision is coherent with the Scuderia’s approach to motorsport and to Formula One in particular, always seeking to promote its sporting and technical values.

The Chairman of the Board of Directors was mandated to evaluate the most suitable ways and methods to protect the company’s interests.

Image: Ferrari

Jenson Button claimed his third pole position of the year in Saturday’s qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix.

Starting his final flying lap just seconds before the end of the session, Button set a lap time of 1:20.527, a tenth of a second faster than second place man Sebastian Vettel.

Button’s team mate, Rubens Barrichello, will start from third on the grid alongside Felipe Massa which should warm some cockles back at Maranello.

Kimi Raikkonen was driving the new ‘Superleggera’ version of the F60, which gave him 10kg more ballast weight to play with but while both the Red Cars were quick in practice an error in strategy saw Raikkonen being dropped in the first qualifying session.

In a repeat of Malaysia, Ferrari thought Kimi’s time would be enough to get him through to the second qualifying session and so decided not to send him out again.  As it turned out he was 2 tenths slower than Sebastien Buemi and will start way back on the eighth row of the grid.

Still, it does look like Ferrari have made significant improvement since Bahrain and Raikkonnen is confident the team can improve further:

We are still a bit behind, I would say, but it’s much stronger than it was before.  It’s only the first step, so we can get some more for the next races. After that, for sure we can catch them up even if it takes a little while.

I don’t know if we can tomorrow or not, but in the later races we can definitely fight for wins, podiums and good positions.

As expected, the McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen performed poorly and only managed 14th and 18th, respectively.

2009 Spanish Grand Prix Qualifying Results

Image: Brawn GP

Last week, the FIA announced plans to introduce a budget cap of £40m in 2010.

The teams are split as to whether this is good idea or not and whether it could result in a two-tier Championship.

Smaller teams like Brawn GP are likely to benefit from such an arrangement but Ferrari boss Luca di Montezemolo wasn’t pleased and wrote a stern letter to FIA president Max Mosely outlining his concerns.

This prompted a reply from Mosely suggesting that Formula One could do just fine without Ferrari and if they don’t like the rules then they don’t have to play.

In the middle of these rising tensions Bernie Ecclestone provided some elucidation in the Times saying of Mosley:

The trouble with Max is he’s not capable, like in the past, of wrapping things up nicely with a pink ribbon and things. He wants to put it in an old cardboard box and tie it with string.

and of di Montezemolo:

The trouble with Luca is that you shouldn’t let Max ever be in a position where he can start a debate or an argument. He’s reasonably clever and you won’t win. Even if you do win, it’s like you being in the audience and me being there with the microphone. You say something smart and I don’t give you the microphone — it’s as easy as that.

finally wrapping things up with:

It would appear that everyone is in favour of the cap, including Ferrari, if we can get them to agree, which we can.

Right.  So no problems there, then!