Ferrari boss may pull the plug on Formula One

Montezemolo stresses FIA regulations hinder entertainment.

LOS ANGELES:

Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo may pull his team out of Formula One because it ‘isn’t working’ and the Italian firm may switch to sports-car competition, he told Wall Street Journal.

Scuderia Ferrari has longstanding disputes with Formula One governing body, the International Automobile Federation (FIA), and Montezemolo expressed frustration with recent F1 rules changes.

“Formula One isn’t working,” he told the Journal in an interview in Maranello, Italy.

He complained that the FIA ‘have forgotten that people watch the racing for the excitement. Nobody watches racing for the efficiency.’

FIA’s new regulations make the sport more environmentally friendly and reduce costs, such as by introducing of a new turbo hybrid V6 engine, which is quieter and less polluting.

But the boss of the most iconic brand in motorsport complained that the restrictions would muffle a key element of the Grand Prix experience: the engine roar.

“People watch racing to be entertained,” he said.

“No one wants to watch a driver save gas or tires. They want to see them push from here to there. It’s sport, yes, but also a show.”

Montezemolo in particular attacked the rules that forbid advances on engine design during the season, a situation that has left Ferrari in third place in the standings.

Ferrari is a subsidiary of the Fiat Group, which Montezemolo chaired from 2004 until 2010. The brand has 15 F1 drivers’ titles and 16 constructors’ championships under its belt as well as 221 Grand Prix victories.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 15^th, 2014.

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