BHunt 72T

I'm sure somewhere else a question has been posted about this, but could someone let me know what the short story is with F1? Ferrari separating themselves... ? BMW, Renault, DaimlerCrysler, Toyota, Honda, etc.. doing their own thing? Where does Bernie E sit with everything? Is all this his fault? What's the timeframe, and how will F1 fans be effected, if at all. Any insight/opinion would be great.

Jarez Mifkin

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/moto...ne/4269145.stm

This is the story from the BBC daily email

Geo

OMG, the story is a melodrama. Basically, if you were around for the FISA/FOCA wars it's playing out all over again, except this time Bernie and Max are "the man" and the teams have enough clout to be able to tell them to go to hell.

Just like in the FISA/FOCA wars, Ferarri has sided with the FIA (nee FISA). However, this time it was not an up-front thing, but a back-room deal that Bernie made with Ferarri thinking getting Ferarri could break the back of the manufacturer's group. Instead, they have courted the teams who have not taken sides on this. Currently it appears the manufacturers are getting the upper hand.

Bernie and Max are proving they can be just as bombastic as the much maligned Jean-Marie Balestre of the FIA (formerly the head of FISA in the FISA/FOCA wars). IMHO Bernie and Max are just out of touch with reality and are greedy SOBs. I can't even fathom their agenda anymore. It seems to be all about money despite the fact that they both now have more than they could ever spend the rest of their lives. This would make a good book actually. Bernie swindled the FIA out of a 100 year contract or some stupid thing like that. Getting it was helped no doubt by is buddy Max who has been Bernie's "boy" for, well, just about forever. Interestingly enough though, Bernie doesn't appear to own the rights to the name F1. I'm sure that will bring a bitter court fight.

Personally, I hope the manufacturers win this one and Bernie and Max are sent packing. They did good for F1 for many years, but IMHO they've lost it and are now screwing it up (and have been for a while). They screwed up sports car racing 10 years ago when they tried to eliminate endurance racing and repackage it. They screwed it up big and when they relized it they walked away from it leaving sports car racing in a mess that it's still recovering from.

The sad thing is that like the CART/Tony Baloney George fiasco in US open wheel racing and the damage it has done, I fear the same may be possible in F1. However, in this case, Bernie and Max don't have the trump car Tony Baloney George has in their back pocket. And like CART (up until their IPO), I think the manufacturers will do it right. But, I think ultimately it will eventually have to come back under the FIA. Hopefully Bernie and Max will have been shown the door by then.

RJay

I don't think that will happen in this case. Theres too much at stake and the series is far larger and more storied (at least from ROW perspective) than Cart or Indy cars. Have no idea what the actual numbers are, but I suspect the Toyota budget alone would dwarf all of Indy and Cart. At $600 million, it probably is larger than all of American racing outside of the France empire. In this instance, and I think you characterized it correctly, its pretty much everybody against Bernie and Max. If the manufacturers want a series, they'll get one. It would be a shame, however to have to give up the F1 name or worse if it were run at a whole new series of circuits, unless they bring back Brands Hatch and the Glen...that would be cool.