12/09/2004
NEWS STORY
The spectre of the Grand Prix World Championship (GPWC) raised its head once again yesterday, and now clearly appears to have the support of the team that many feel is F1, Ferrari.
Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo launched a stinging attack on the way Formula One is currently run, and the man that pulls the strings, Bernie Ecclestone.
'We are coming to the end of an era in terms of the way we present our sport to the public," said the Italian. "The teams cannot survive on such a small slice of the money, receiving only 47% of the TV rights money. Several teams are struggling to find the budget to race next year. We will study the situation as will everyone. We cannot simply rely on cost cutting and there must be more funds coming in. The current situation is unacceptable and the sport is becoming too expensive for the smaller teams and even for us.
"It was a big mistake to sell the company to a German TV company and then to sell it to Kirch," he added, "and a mistake now that the sport is 75 per cent owned by banks.
"A certain era has finished and we have to look at something new and totally acceptable to the players, who at the moment only get 47 per cent of the TV rights and advertising and so on. It is not possible any more. Unfortunately, somebody does not understand."
The current agreement regarding the running of Formula 1 goes on until 2007. "After that we need to reflect and think what to do in the future,' continued Montezemolo. "Racing is the most important thing for Ferrari, but not necessarily Formula 1 even though it is part of our past and our present and I fervently hope, our future too.
"For us, Formula 1 is important for two reasons: as a source of technical research that can be applied to our road cars and as a means of publicising the Ferrari name around the world without resorting to advertising. However, we have to look at the costs involved and see if they are still worthwhile. I recently watched an FIA GT championship race, with participation from Ferrari and Maserati and I was very impressed by the whole package, the fact the public had good access to the paddock and the atmosphere in general. Formula 1 could learn from this.
"We need to put together a new Formula 1 which gives the teams a bigger slice of the revenue and not just from TV rights."
Clearly, the writing is on the wall.