London: Ferrari has been taking secret soundings to discover if the most famous motor racing team in the world could walk out of Formula One. Bernie Ecclestone, the former chief executive, is warning the sport's new owners Liberty Media that this threat to quit and start a rival series is real.
On the eve of the new season, with cars for 2018 due out on the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona on Monday for the first test session, Ecclestone's words will ring through the sport.
Sergio Marchionne, the Ferrari president, is playing hardball against Liberty plans to erase preferential payments that have seen the Italian team, the oldest in Formula One, paid more than any other squad. Last year, Ferrari was paid an estimated $9m more than Mercedes, the world champions.
He is also against plans by the FIA, the governing body, to ditch the current version of hybrid engines that have proved so controversial and unpopular with fans.
Pundits have written off Marchionne's threat to walk away rather than give in to Liberty as grandstanding. But Ecclestone said: "Some people have in mind a new series. Marchionne has spoken to other people. If he got up in the morning and decided to leave, he would leave. It is real. If the FIA don't do what he thinks is right - and which would benefit Ferrari - he would leave."
Ecclestone, who was a personal friend of Enzo Ferrari, the founder of the team who entered cars into the first modern grand prix in 1950, believes Liberty would risk an exodus of racetracks and possibly other teams if Ferrari carried out their threat.
Though he has not been asked directly for help by Marchionne, he says there are talks behind the scenes.
"The bottom line is simple: Formula One is Ferrari and Ferrari is Formula One," he added. "I would hate to see Formula One without Ferrari. I don't think Sergio does things unless he is serious.
"He won't look too good if he doesn't do what he says he would do. No (racetrack) promoter would be happy to see Ferrari leave. Ferrari is the biggest attraction."
It was Ecclestone who devised the payments system that treated Ferrari as a special case because CVC Capital Partners, the previous owners, wanted to float the Formula One business on the Stock Exchange. "Why do Ferrari get more than anyone else? Because when we went to the market we had to explain to people that these (top) teams can't disappear," Ecclestone said.
"So, all the top teams signed an agreement saying they would stay in Formula One until 2020 and we paid them (extra) money.
"Ferrari got more than anyone else for one simple reason: they had been in Formula One longer than anyone else."
The Times, London
