23/09/2017
NEWS STORY
Whenever we listen to Liberty Media's plans for F1, much like Zak Brown at McLaren, we are minded of the old quip about the marketing man who on the first night of his honeymoon spends the entire night sitting on the edge of the bed telling his wife how good it is going to be.
It would appear than nine months into the sport's ownership under Liberty Media, despite the endless promises and platitudes, Force India deputy team principal Bob Fernley is feeling pretty much the same.
As one of the teams most keen to see Liberty make good on its various promises, especially in terms of cutting costs and ensuring a more equal sharing of the prize pot, Force India is waiting... and waiting... and waiting... on news of what F1's new owners are actually going to do.
"I'm disappointed in some ways," he told Motorsport.com. "We have done an awful lot of talking and an awful lot of ideas have come through. But when we're nine months down the road, you'd have thought we'd have been firming something up a bit more now.
"The engine programme should be finalised because that is the cornerstone of the cost control programme," he continued. "Cost control should be coming through very closely behind it, if that's where we're going, because people have to respond to it.
"The clock is ticking," he warned, "it won't be long until we're into next year. I was hoping we would be seeing something now, at least a skeleton of where we're going but we're getting nothing at all.
"There has been a lot of meetings behind closed doors," he said. "Now, it's a case of Liberty presenting something that can be considered.
"Ross has taken a very careful approach to everything," he said of Ross Brawn, FOM's Sporting boss, "he's talked to all the teams, he's got all the feedback. They have a direction they want to go into. Now they need to get something out in the discussion process to all teams."