What’s this “war on manufacturers”?

I’m not the greatest of writers, but I’ll attempt to piece together ideas that have been said numerous times by members of F1 message boards as well as news publications.

Just two days ago, Ferrari produced on their website, a statement that suggestively attacked the Formula 1 governance. Ferrari’s claim was that the F1 power elite are the reason we have just three (and if Renault leave two) true manufacturers left on the F1 starting grid. They also suggested that the newcomers to the sport are NOT F1 material and might not even make it to the grid in Bahrain. Ferrari reasoned that the global economic downturn had nothing to do with the mass exodus of teams and F1 partners.

Granted Ferrari didn’t specifically name the culprits, but having to guess who they might have meant is not really a challenge.

And who is going to say that Ferrari are incorrect?

Certainly none of those manufacturers that left have, and neither did the those that stayed. And if the silence wasn’t enough, how about, Adrian Campos? One of those lesser teams that Ferrari was eluding to, who got a spot on the 2010 F1 grid along with Manor, Lotus and USF1, who was reported to have been galloping through Europe in an attempt to sell his team!

So who thinks that F1 is in good health? Well for one, Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner who may I add is a not a manufacturer. “Whilst it is a great shame for Formula 1, the show ultimately goes on and there will be more cars on the grid” he said.

And then there’s everyone’s favorite Williams who said this “The sport has changed massively since 2006, if you look back from the early 2000s to the last 18 months, it has been manufacturer dominated but that’s shifting significantly.” It certainly has Frank, though not on the track!

Why is this important? Read on…

To understand the current situation, we need to look at the current political climate within the sport.

So why are the little teams there? Are the powers that be mad? No they are just waging war and well I might add.

How have the battles played out?

Well the teams got rid of Max and replaced him with an ex Ferrari man, hopefully for them, pro FOTA Jean Todt. Who’s stance during the election was that he would make the sport “bigger and stronger” by bringing more money back where it belongs.  That ‘where’, is still up for grabs.

Bernie along with his fetish happy friend Max has been draining the sport’s and more importantly the teams’ profit for years! CVC Capital Partners is taking 50% of F1’s income and will do so for the next tree years.  Profit that could go to supporting the teams. Ferrari have currently no confirmed plan to be in the sport past 2012 when they will decide what is best for them.

Bernie’s biggest problem is that at the end of the new Concorde Agreement which ends in 2012, the teams are bound to take back a large portion of CVC’s share of the profits from 50% to just 15%.  For Bernie that is a death sentence, as there will be nowhere to hide when his creditors come knocking.  Bernie’s only counter will be to find friends to wage war.

His biggest obstacle was and is FOTA and the only way that Bernie is going to find a way to keep his 35% is by splitting the organization, the power of which comes from the manufacturers.

To start things off, they first flipped the field by giving more power to the independents, setting up the current F1 climate by conveniently allowing the controversial double diffuser with great implications on car performance.  A device that, as most will agree, goes against the agenda and numerous implementation to increase passing. To make things even more interesting they first rejected other teams’ proposals and clarifications for the exact same device (Renault and possibly others) stating conveniently, that ‘their’ device was illegal in the way it was presented, but the same exact device, was legal to on the verge of collapse Brawn, Toyota and Williams when presented differently in somehow a new “legal” way.

Just reticently F1 team Sauber who managed to stay in F1 thanks to the Qudbak group after BMW along with Bridgestone, Honda, & now Toyota and now possibly Renault left, found themselves on the sidelines with the new entrants taking up the slots.  With surprise surprise…Williams’, Frank ‘on the back foot’ independent lodging a stop to a FOTA attempt to grant them entry.

To make things even more comfortable for the poorly funded independents, there was the idea of drastic cost cuts that eventually drove out Max Mosely who was allied with Bernie on the idea.  And, although even the top level manufacturers were pro cost cuts, none of them wanted to lower a cap to the level that Max and Bernie suggested.  A cap, designed to support the ‘little’ teams.  The duo going as far as suggesting a spec engine.

To make things even more crucial for Formula 1, Bernie is finding it difficult to find places that will pay his outrageous fees for the ‘privilege’ to host a Grand Prix.  The only locations that seem to be always confirmed on the calendar are the oil rich Bahrain and Abu Dhabi who are willing to pay the outrageous fees needed to finance the CVC debt.

Canada is probably the best but certainly not the only example.  Huge attendance, huge TV ratings, and huge potential profit.  The 2005 Canadian Grand Prix was not only the most-watched F1 race, but the third most-watched sporting event in the world.  It was taken off the F1 schedule because there was not enough private money to pay Bernie and the local government was not going to be convinced of spending public money to service Bernie’s bank partners.

At first glance the situation looks good for FOTA teams with Ferrari at the helm and Todt at the office.  But don’t get too comfortable, the presence of the little teams is exactly what Bernie wants because he knows that it would take nothing more than a struggling Williams, Brawn, Campos, USF1, Lotus or Manor to bite a Bernie handout cookie only to become a Trojan horse within FOTA.

What makes things worse, is that Bernie will kill the manufacturers still left or die trying because if FOTA win, Bernie will loose and the debt will eat him alive.

Prepare for battle!

Related Articles

• October 25, 2009 -- Ferrari’s Former Todt Elected FIA President
• February 4, 2010 -- F1 Video – Valencia testing Days 1-2-3
• February 1, 2010 -- Ferrari F10 Silences critics Massa ends day P1