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Red Bull tea principal Christian Horner says that Mercedes and Ferrari are "working as one team". Formula 1's political battle heated up over the winter, with both Mercedes and Ferrari opposed to Liberty Media's future for the sport.
Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne has threatened to pull Ferrari out of F1 if he feels the new engine regulations, which will come into play in 2021, are not up to standard. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said that Marchionne's comments "make absolute sense".
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"Mercedes and Ferrari are working as one team these days," Horner said. "Sometimes it is difficult to tell which is which. For the last couple of years there has been a very tight relationship between Ferrari and Mercedes. They even broadcast each other's launches and things like that these days."
And Horner says that Liberty must clearly outline how they want to shape the future of F1: "We are focused on going racing, things that we can control, there are new owners in Formula 1 in Liberty and they have to decide what they want Formula 1 to look like moving forwards.
"I'm sure they will lay out their roadmap and plan during the course of this season and we will go from there. But of course there is going to be a lot of posturing and positioning and you can see that has already started in certain quarters."
Last week, former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone made the bold suggestion that F1 should switch to all-electric cars. He also suggested that Ferrari could easily form a breakaway series, but Horner thinks that that is unlikely.
"Bernie knows every time the Concorde came up for renewal there was talk of a different series," he said. "Since my involvement over the past 14 years, every time it's up for renewal, bang there is another series mooted. It hasn't happened yet and I don't think it's going to happen at the moment.
"Formula 1 is and will be the pinnacle of motorsport and it is down to the commercial rights holder and the governing body to say 'this is what the future looks like' and then it's down to the teams whether they want to be part of it or not."
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Replies (5)
Login to replycalle.itw
Posts: 8,527
"They even broadcast each other's launches and things like that these days." They do that? I havent really seen that.
Kean
Posts: 692
I don’t see how a new formula series created by Ferrari could work. Ferrari keep threatening to leave F1 if the FIA don’t act in accordance to their wishes. I.e. this potential new series would be set up exactly how Ferrari would want it. Meaning in this series Ferrari would receive the bulk of the revenue and Ferrari would dictate the rules of the series, and they would dictate the rules in such a way that would benefit them (basically like F1 is now). What teams would want to join such a series? Why join a series that is rigged in favour of one team? It is exactly this that Liberty is trying to get rid of in F1 in order for more teams to join. This brings me to another point regarding this whole debate, the one about Ferrari being F1 and vice versa. Sure Ferrari is very important for F1, but even more so isn’t Ferrari vs. McLaren/Mercedes/Williams/Red Bull/Renault more important? Meaning if Ferrari leaves but none of the other iconic teams follows would that other series still carry the same weight if it is only Ferrari vs. a bunch of new teams no one has ever heard of? If the other teams stay in F1 there would still be many iconic teams in F1 whereas in this new Formula Ferrari there would only be one. Is that where Ferrari want’s to be? Do they want to be the team that became world champions by beating Mercedes, Red Bull, McLaren, Renault? Or do they want to be world champions by beating Stefan GP etc.
Kean
Posts: 692
In the interview with Bernie they refer to, Bernie also said something like "Ferrari is F1, when people think of Ferrari they think of F1 not their road cars". Well if so Ferrari really can't afford to leave F1 can they? Perhaps Ferrari needs F1 more than F1 needs Ferrari.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Neither really can afford Ferrari leaving. Ferrari is F1, and F1 is Ferrari. They need each other.
kngrthr
Posts: 203
"Red Bull tea principal Christian Horner "
is that a demotion ?