Who Has Pole Position?

Ferrari says it will walk away from Formula 1 next year if the people making the rules adopt a two-tiered regulatory structure and budget cap that sharply limits how much teams can spend each season. Suck on that, Bernie Ecclestone!

The legendary automaker joins Toyota, Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso in threatening to bow out if the Federation Internationale d’Automobile doesn’t back down. While the other teams are only making noise at this point, Ferrari’s board of directors voted Monday to call it quits if the rules are adopted.

“… for the first time ever in Formula 1, the 2010 season will see the introduction of two different sets of regulations based on arbitrary technical rules and economic parameters,” they said. “The Board considers that if this is the regulatory framework for Formula 1 in the future, then the reasons underlying Ferrari’s uninterrupted participation in the World Championship over the last 60 years – the only constructor to have taken part ever since its inception in 1950 – would come to a close.”

It was a ballsy announcement - and one hell of a bluff. Ferrari is the most storied name in F1, but it is about as likely to quit racing as Apple is to quit making computers...right? Ferrari is firing a huge shot across the bow of the FIA and Bernie Eccelstone, who runs the gazillion-dollar enterprise that is Formula 1. FIA boss Max Mosley has long been obsessed with reining in the stratospheric cost of F1 racing. His latest idea to cut spending is a two-tiered set of rules that promotes frugality. Teams that abide by a $60 million spending cap would have far greater technical leeway than those that opt to spend whatever they like. The proposed cap would not include driver salaries, marketing costs or engine development.

Ferrari spends an ungodly amount of money racing and hates Mosley’s proposal. Company president Luca di Montezemolo recently said the new regulations would be “fundamentally unfair and perhaps even biased,” according to one press report. Mosley hasn’t responded to Ferrari’s announcement, but according to the New York Times, he has said before that F1 could survive without Ferrari. Uh...no, it couldn’t.

Anyone with a passing knowledge of the sport knows Ferrari is huge - Beatles kind of huge. It inspires such passion among fans that Alain Prost all but feared for his life when he declared his car undriveable in 1991. Word amongst drivers regarding if the sport can thrive without the cornerstone company and they’ll tell you it can’t. “Without Ferrari I don’t think it would be Formula 1 anymore,” Giancarlo Fisichella, a 12-year veteran who currently drives for Force India, told The Mirror newspaper.

Even if F1 could survive without Ferrari, what will happen if Toyota, Red Bull, and Toro Rosso walk? Renault says it’s ready to bail, and BMW reportedly is considering it. If everyone makes good on the threat, that leaves Brawn GP, McLaren, Williams and Force India. That’s not much of a grid. The teams have until May 29 to file the paperwork needed to compete next year, so this mess will come to a head soon. Ferrari’s threat cannot be taken lightly because Montezemolo is head of the powerful Formula One Teams Association, and so holds great sway. But neither can it be seen as anything more than brinkmanship ahead of the teams’ meeting with Mosley before the Monaco Grand Prix on May 24.

Yes, you're witnessing a civil war within the sport.

Mosley and Eccelstone have to see this and realize no one will win. Eccelstone in particular has to be worried, with his reputation for wringing every cent possible out of F1. If Ferrari and the rest of them quit, F1 will lose tens of millions of dollars at exactly the time it is gaining more attention. Few people will tune in to see Brawn GP - as phenomenal as it is - and McLaren lead Williams and Force India around the track. Who wants to watch a race where everyone scores points? And what’s Ferrari going to do - take up Le Mans racing? Start a World Rally Championship team? F1 is all Ferrari does, and it’s damn good at it. You have to believe the FIA is seriously reconsidering the 2010 rules right about now. And although Montezelomo, as head of the teams’ association, is holding a pretty strong hand, you have to believe he’s bluffing. This will come down to the last lap.