Motorsport

Is this really the end of Max Mosley?

Andrew Frankel — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:32:53 GMT

Does anyone else share my nagging doubt that, despite all appearances to the contrary, the F1 spat may not yet have run its course? I say this only because, after many years watching Max Mosley in action, he strikes me as the last person who’s going to allow himself to be rolled over and booted out of office by a bunch of car manufacturers.

I am not even sure he will go this autumn, for it would not be the first time he’d failed to go when he said he would. To quote him directly "As long as the teams behave themselves I will be gone. A deal is a deal and if it is not stuck to you sometimes have to reconsider things. However, I have absolute confidence that this resolution will be stuck to." That statement strikes me as having more than a little wriggle room engineered into it. But even if he does go, surely it will not be without at least one last laugh.

Read Mosley splits; FOTA split is off

Read Alan Henry's blog: Mosley agrees to go

What will that be? Who can say but it’s clear Mosley still wields colossal clout among those who make up the FIA’s electorate and I for one will be watching with interest as his successor is unveiled. I’ll also bet plenty that Mosley won’t then be content to go home and tend the roses, or whatever else he may feel inclined to get up to in his spare time. Vladimir Putin is no longer president of Russia, but no-one doubts who’s really in charge. I can quite see Max becoming a ‘consultant’ to the FIA and continuing to be a thorn in the manufacturers’ side for years to come.

Technorati Tags: Max Mosley, FIA, FOTA, Ferrari, McLaren, BMW, William, Renault, Brawn, F1 Formula One, Formula 1, Red Bull

Mosley agrees to go

Alan Henry — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:58:07 GMT

Max Mosley has finally announced that he will not be standing for re-election as FIA president this coming October, a decision which broke the seemingly intractable conflict which threatened the very future of the world championship.

Mosley, whose style of governance was one of the key issues underpinning the determination of FOTA to split with the FIA, agreed that he would bow out from the presidency in four months time. There is no word as to will succeed him but former Ferrari sporting director Jean Todt, a close ally of Mosley, has been mentioned as a possibility.

Read: Mosley quits; FOTA series off

For their part, the dissident teams agreed to scrap their plans for a separate series. Their reward was that the FIA agreed to scrap its planned £40m budget cap for 2010, eliminating the need for any intrusive examination of the teams’ books by the governing body, although they agreed that they would work to significantly reduce budgets within the next two years.

“There will be no split,” said Mosley who has been FIA president since 1991 and been re-elected four times during the past 18 years. “We have agreed to a reduction in costs. There will be one Formula One championship but the (long-term) objective is to get back to the levels of spending of the early 1990s within two years.”

The FIA also took the opportunity of publishing the official 2010 world championship entry list which includes all the current teams plus newcomers Manor, Campos and USF1, all of whom are down to run Cosworth engines.

Technorati Tags: Max Mosley, Formula One, F1, Formula 1, FIA, Cosworth, Manor, Campos, Ferrari, FOTA

The future's bright for Silverstone

Alan Henry — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 10:01:45 GMT

The British Racing Drivers’ Club, the owners of Silverstone, must have been smiling a corporate smile of some satisfaction on Monday morning after one of the most successful British Grand Prix meetings in recent memory.

With a capacity 95,000 crowd flooding through the gates of the Northamptonshire circuit, and the grandstands heaving at the seams, it was hard to imagine that this was the last such world championship fixture to be staged at this popular venue. Nor will it be. The news that the Formula One Teams’ Association are hell bent on establishing their own separate championship series means that Silverstone will have an international, world class open-wheeler race in 2010 come what may and whatever Donington might do.

If the British GP comes back to fall in its lap, all well and good. If not, then the fans will be able to come and see Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull and all the other top teams contesting a round of the Grand Prix World Cup, or whatever the new series will be called.

Ironically, the proposed split plays into Silverstone’s hands in more far-reaching ways. At the height of an economic depression, and with the nervous commercial uncertainty which surrounds the prospect of an F1 split, the notion of anybody being interested in investing in a new F1 circuit – just 90 miles from Silverstone – would seem to be questionable in the extreme. Particularly as, under the current business arrangements with Bernie Ecclestone and CVC Capital Partners, the TV rights, trackside advertising and corporate hospitality revenues are all swept out of the clutches of the track owners.

Silverstone looked trim, tidy and well maintained as it went into the British Grand Prix weekend. And on Sunday afternoon there was a palpable buzz about the place which signalled optimism and confidence about the future. And Mr Ecclestone has clearly had a welcome change of mind.

Technorati Tags: F1, Formula One, Silverstone, Donington, Ferrari, McLaren, Bernie Ecclestone, CVC Capital Partners, Grand Prix

What next in F1's mutiny saga?

Andrew Frankel — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 09:59:00 GMT

Is the key to the whole F1 bust-up not tied up in broadcast rights? The Beeb is contracted to broadcast coverage of F1 for the next five years and it is hard to see them spending more licence fee money doing the same for a breakaway championship, harder still for the currently parlous terrestrial commercial stations to do the same.

Read about the F1 bust-up here

What then? It’s hard to see sponsors shelling out the millions constructors need to fund their teams on the promise of a few hours on Dave at the weekend. If this problem is replicated in whole or even substantial part in other regions around the world, the F1 teams are going to face the budget cuts they’re trying to avoid any way. Maybe Rupert Murdoch has the answer?

As I understand it however, a prime motivating force behind the breakaway is a desire to escape the clutches of Max Mosley. If so, it’s a pretty drastic move and illustrates better than anything we’ve seen so far the strength of feeling against the man. But what interests me more are the accusations now being hurled at Ferrari by the FIA. These once firmest of friends would now appear as mortal enemies. If the FIA is able to hold Ferrari to what it claims are its contractual obligations it will be interesting to see if the alleged favourable treatment many say Ferrari has enjoyed from the FIA over the years is still forthcoming.

And what would the enforced absence of Ferrari mean for the remaining mutineers? There are those that would claim having Ferrari on the grid is worth all the others put together, a viewpoint that will not be lost on Mr Mosley right now. Divide and rule, as they say.

Technorati Tags: F1, Formula One, Ferrari, Rupert Murdoch, Dave, BBC, FIA, Max Mosley

F1 explodes, so what happens next?

Alan Henry — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:09:16 GMT

You might be forgiven for thinking that the F1 community yesterday linked arms and voluntarily jumped over the cliff into a gaping abyss, leaving the FIA-backed establishment facing the prospect of staging an official world championship contested by a group of makeshift newcomers while the cream of the sport aligned with the F1 teams’ association will face an equally exacting task finding race tracks and broadcasters who wish to support what will certainly be branded as a breakaway championship.

Read the story of the breakaway F1 series here

FOTA faces a complex challenge getting a new series off the ground, but it is by no means impossible. Even FIA president Max Mosley has admitted that the governing body will be prepared to licence a breakaway series if the manufacturers so choose, although whether he will be so sanguine when it comes to the crunch remains to be seen, particularly as most FOTA members make little secret of the fact that Mosley is the main cause of the problem.

In practical terms the eight dissident teams – Ferrari, BMW Sauber, McLaren, Toyota, Renault, Red Bull, Toro Rosso and Brawn – have now got to get down to the practicalities of going it alone. They may pray that Mosley might defuse the situation by announcing at the next FIA world motor sport council meeting that he will not re-stand for election as the governing body’s president in October, but they would be unwise to pin their hopes on such a selfless act.

Technorati Tags: Ferrari, BMW Sauber, McLaren, Toyota, Renault, Red Bull, Toro Rosso, Brawn, F1, FOTA, FIA, Max Mosley, Mosley, Ecclestone

FIA surprised at criticism from road car manufacturers

Alan Henry — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:05:00 GMT

The long running dispute between the F1 teams’ association and the FIA over plans for cost cutting in 2010 took another unexpected twist yesterday.

The governing body’s president Max Mosley expressed his surprise that Europe’s road car manufacturers apparently lined up behind those formula one teams who are calling for a change in the FIA’s style of governance.

From the touchlines this looked as though it was piling the pressure onto Mosley at a time when he is soon expected to decide whether or not he will be re-standing for election to the FIA presidency in October.

The FIA indicated that they felt it was ironic that the association of (road) car makers seemed to be taking a stance against cost saving in F1 at a time that their industry was struggling financially.

“The FIA is surprised that the European car manufacturers’ association ACEA should have rejected the FIA’s endeavour to reduce costs in formula one,” said a further statement. “By contrast, the FIA strongly endorses ACEA’s call for urgent measures to return the automotive sector to health.”

The FIA also accused some of the teams of deliberately trying to undermine a peace deal which would have resolved the ongoing conflict which looks set to intensify in the run-up to next Sunday’s British GP at Silverstone.

As things stand at the present moment, the FIA has "invited" the McLaren, Renault, BMW Sauber, Toyota and Brawn teams to withdraw the conditions attached to their entries for the 2010 world championship by this Friday when first practice kicks off at the Northamptonshire track.

“During the meeting(last week) FOTA acknowledged that the FIA wanted to encourage the introduction of new teams to the championship (in order) to maintain its stability and economic viability in the long term,” said a statement from the govering body yesterday.

“Agreement was reached on the technical regulations for 2010 which offered assistance for new teams from the currently competing teams in several key areas. There is clearly an element in FOTA which is determined to prevent agreement being reached regardless of the damage it may cause.”

In response, FOTA issued a statement making it clear that they would not be responding in detail to the allegations made by the FIA. A spokesman said that the teams wanted to avoid “a prolonged series of polemical statements that generate confusion and does not help create a positive environment for the ongoing contact.”

Technorati Tags: Max, Mosley, FIA, F1, governing body, FOTA

Ferrari on collision course with FIA

Alan Henry — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:34:50 GMT

Ferrari this morning looked set on course for a head-on collision with the FIA after the sport’s governing body listed the famous Italian team as an unconditional entry for the 2010 World Championship despite being advised that the Maranello outfit was only entering on a conditional basis pending a resolution of ongoing disputes over the future regulations.

In a very direct and unambiguous statement, Ferrari made it clear that they have “no intention” of taking part in next year’s world championship until their conditions were met. The statement added; “Following the publication of a list which shows Ferrari as an unconditional entrant, Ferrari wishes to state the following. Ferrari submitted on 29 May 2009 an entry to the 2010 F1 world championship which is subject to certain conditions. As of today those conditions have not been met.

“For the avoidance of any doubt, Ferrari reaffirm that it shall not take part in the 2010 FIA world championship under the regulations adopted by the FIA in violation of Ferrari’s rights under a written agreement with the FIA.”

The FIA posted a list of entries which included Ferrari, Scuderia Toro Rosso, Red Bull, Williams, Force India and newcomers Campos, Manor Motorsport and Team US F1, all of which are scheduled at the moment to use Cosworth engines. Prodrive was disappointed not to be selected as a potential entry.

Accepted subject to their withdrawing the conditions attached to their entries are FOTA members McLaren, BMW Sauber, Renault, Toyota and Brawn. The FIA has given these teams until next Friday, the first practice day for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, to withdraw their conditions and make their entries unconditional.

For their part, FOTA have written to the FIA’s Senate and World Motorsport Council, asking them to intervene and effectively rein in the governing body’s president Max Mosley. Deeply concerned about the governance of the sport, these teams want urgent steps to be taken to resolve a crisis which they believe to be “self generated.”

Unless the issue can be resolved the teams will be forced to pursue “alternative solutions which will protect them.” In Ferrari’s case that might involve a return to Le Mans where the company’s president Luca di Montezemolo will be the official starter this weekend.

The letter continues to ask for the WSMC’s support “to ensure that the outcome of these meetings[over the next week] achieves a solution that allows long established teams to continue in their sport within a framework of sound governance and stability that will ensure the future and sustainability of F1.”

Technorati Tags: Ferrari, F1, Formula One, Formula 1, Toyota, Williams, Brawn, Lola, Prodrive, Red Bull, Red Bull Racing, Scuderia Toro Rosso, Force India, Campos, Manor, Team US F1, Max Mosley

Pressure ramps up ahead of F1's D-Day

Alan Henry — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 11:09:31 GMT

Renault’s chief executive officer Carlos Ghosn has called for Bernie Ecclestone to make a bigger cut of F1’s commercial rights income available to the competing teams on the eve of the scheduled deadline (Friday 12 June) for the FIA to announce which teams it will be accepting for the 2010 world championship.

Speaking on Wednesday in front of France’s National Assembly, Ghosn made it clear that he felt it was grossly inequitable that Ecclestone and CVC Capital Partners take a 50 per cent share of the sport’s $1bn annual commercial rights income stream, money generated from race fees, television contracts and circuit advertising.

“We are the ones doing the show, who bring the technology, who bring in the engines, who hire the drivers,” said Ghosn firmly. “And if we do the show, the revenues must come back to us. Today we pay to be in F1. That is not normal. Intermediaries have made enough money with this. We want to take back control of F1.”

Ghosn’s critique was perfectly timed to put maximum pressure on FIA president Max Mosley as Renault are members of the F1 Teams’ Association, eight of whom have made it clear that they have only submitted entries for 2010 on the strict condition that the technical rules remain substantially the same as they are in 2009.

Meanwhile Ferrari has told the FIA that it cannot accept their entry unless they accept the conditions laid down by FOTA and, for his part, Ecclestone has warned that if the manufacturers get around to contemplating a breakaway series in 2010, they will be sued for potentially millions of pounds if they interfere with any circuit or television contracts currently in place for the official F1 championship.

As an adjunct to that, Damon Hill, the president of the British Racing Drivers’ Club, has warned against the dangers of a breakaway series, pointing to the fact that US oval track racing never really recovered from the 1996 split between the Indy Racing League and Champcar.

“It risks getting to the point where the credibility of the sport is brought into question,” said the 1996 world champion this week at Silverstone.

Technorati Tags: Carlos Ghosn, F1, Formula One, Formula 1, Bernie Eccleston, CVC Capital, damon Hill, Silverstone, British Grand Prix, IRL, Indy Racing League, Champcar, Champ Car, Ferrari, FIA, Max Mosley, Renault

The death of KERS

Andrew Frankel — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:00:00 GMT

It now seems certain that the future purpose of the much vaunted KERS energy recovery system is to enable F1 anoraks to look smug when its name appears on the question sheet of the local pub quiz in a few years time.

Expensive, unreliable and of unproven merit, all the F1 teams want shot of it save BMW which, in the interest of keeping the peace among FOTA members (and because it has no choice but to go with majority opinion) will not use it next year either.

It won’t be banned but nor does it need to be: another slice of high grade F1 anoraxia is that you could have entered F1 in 1954 with a car powered by a supercharged 750cc engine. Nobody did because nobody was quite that stupid.

I was one of the few that welcomed KERS because I thought it would encourage overtaking and require addition skill from the driver to master, ensuring the gap between the best and worst pedallers on the grid became more pronounced.

But as the half way point of the season approaches, no KERS car has even looked like winning a race and is now being used as much as anything by drivers of Ferraris and McLarens to prevent overtaking by theoretically quicker non-KERS car.

In fact and as far as I can see, its only real merit is to have proven such a blind alley that it at least assisted in making the big money teams design uncompetitive cars, precipitating the first really big shake up in the F1 hierarchy in decades.

Technorati Tags: Kers, Mclaren, F1

F1 poised to go nuclear

Alan Henry — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:02:14 GMT

You might think that Gordon Brown has got his problems, but Max Mosley could be about to trigger a seismic F1 meltdown which will make our prime minister’s little difficulties look like a walk in the park.

Yesterday, in an interview with the respected Swiss racing magazine Motorsport Aktuell, Mosley dramatically raised the stakes in his confrontation with the Formula One Team’s Association by telling the nine teams who submitted their entries en bloc last Friday, that if they don’t like the new rules then they had better push off and make their own arrangements for their own separate championship.

“We(the FIA) have been running Formula One for the past 60 years and will continue to do so,” said Mosley, who advised the teams who want a new Concorde agreement signed before 12 June, the day on which the governing body is scheduled to confirm who has been granted an entry and who has not.

I don’t wish to pour scorn on the sport’s governing body, but when the March team, which hasn’t existed since 1993, was announced as one of the organisations to have submitted an entry, I burst out loud laughing. There are a lot of very serious professional teams who have submitted entries for the F1 championship in 2010, but most of them have as much chance of getting a proper Grand Prix team on the road as I have.

Not because they are not competent, but because the very problem which Mosley has been seeking to address – ie acute lack of money – affects these small organisations every bit as much as the established teams.

If Mosley ends up by kicking the top teams out, does anybody seriously think that half the substitute teams entered, such as Litespeed and Campos, could really put their hands on 40m euros to get an F1 team off the ground for the start of next year?

With respect, I certainly don’t, and it is ironic that the arguments for cost containment which have been one of Mosley’s more credible initiatives in recent years could yet blow up in his face and bring the whole business collapsing around his ears. It won’t, of course, because there will be a compromise. But in the meantime the sport is painting itself into an idiotically embarrassing corner.

Technorati Tags: F1, Max Mosley, Ferrari, Litespeed, March, Concorde, Grand Prix

Is F1 on the path to Armageddon?

Alan Henry — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 11:28:16 GMT

F1 is now ticking off the days to what well might be a high octane version of Armageddon which could be coming the sport’s way on 12 June. That’s the day on which FIA president Max Mosley will be announcing just who has been accepted to contest the 2010 world championship.

So who will it be? Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull, Renault, Toro Rosso, Force India, BMW Sauber, Brawn and Toyota? Or will it be Williams, Prodrive, Lola, Litespeed, Campos or Superfund? Or a thinly diluted mix of both groups?

Well, of course, the conclusion one draws will be based on two firm premises. Namely, whether you choose to believe that the ‘stand off’ between the established teams and the FIA over cost capping is just a set-piece confrontation, a typical slice of F1 window dressing intended simply to strengthen the value of the ‘franchises’ of those long-serving organisations.

Or you may choose to believe that, in a maverick moment, Mosley could just press the nuclear button, tell the sport’s most famous names to take a long walk on a short pier, and reinvent budget F1 with a bunch of novices, newcomers and nonentities. A bit like he did when he was one of the founding fathers of the March team, in fact, way back in 1970.

I was interested to read that Ferrari team chief Stefano Domenicali claimed that Ferrari was “staying true to their principles” by being part of the FOTA ‘conditional entry’ for the 2010 world championship which was submitted to the FIA last week.

He stated that “the entries will only be valid if the Concorde agreement is signed and if the regulations will be those currently in use, but modified as per FOTA’s suggestions.”

Over the past few weeks it has been difficult to discern precisely who is in the driving seat as far as this dispute is concerned. The only thing that has become clear to me is that costs in this business have now well and truly spiralled so far out of control that even the FIA’s recent, seemingly sane, initiative on the matter is in danger of going down the pan. Taken just as a temporary measure for a single year a 100m euro budget cap is utterly ludicrous. Have FOTA and the FIA both been spending too much time out in the sun?

Technorati Tags: Max Mosley, FIA, Ferrari, FOTA, Armageddon, Formula One, Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull, Renault, Toro Rosso, Force India, BMW Sauber, Brawn, Toyota, Williams, Prodrive, Lola, Litespeed, Campos, Superfund

Aston is a boost for F1

Alan Henry — Fri, 29 May 2009 11:29:55 GMT

Aston Martin is the most achingly obvious iconic high performance brand which has been missing from the F1 scene for far too long. Now, almost 50 years to the week since Carroll Shelby and Roy Salvadori drove one of the classic DBR1s to victory in the Le Mans 24-hour epic, Prodrive boss David Richards looks poised to bring the famous name back into the F1 frame. Prodrive’s decision to move into F1 next season must surely be a first step.

This firestorm of speculation comes on the day which marks the deadline for official entries for the F1 championship to be lodged, and while the established teams have spent the past few months wrestling with the FIA’s planned, much needed and controversial budget cap – set at 100m euros for 2010 before being trimmed to the governing body’s preferred level of 45m euros in 2011 – the news of Prodrive’s impending arrival in 2010 is a welcome slice of good news for the sport in dark economic times.

It speaks volumes for Richards’ upbeat optimism that he has been able to get a deal like this together with his commercial partners. And the connections with Aston Martin are so obviously compelling that it is difficult for most of us to regard Prodrive’s arrival as anything but an advanced guard heralding a fully fledged Aston Martin programme in a couple of years’ time.

As far as new teams are concerned generally, despite much upbeat talk on the part of the FIA, I have my doubts that many of those who showed interest initially are in no position to raise 45m euros, let alone next year’s proposed cap of 100m euros.

As one insider commented, shrewdly I thought; “When you think just how much trouble the Brawn team are having bagging a major title sponsor, even after winning five of the season’s first six races, then you can see just what sort of effect the economic depression is really having.”

Technorati Tags: Aston Martin, F1, David Richards, FIA, Prodrive, Carroll Shelby, Roy Salvadori

Win on Sunday, sell on Monday?

Jim Holder — Wed, 27 May 2009 23:17:00 GMT

In the 1960s, the theory behind manufacturers getting involved in motorsport was summed up as, 'Win on Sunday, sell on Monday.'

Well, it seems there are still plenty of manufacturers out there who believe in the marketing power of motorsport.

The latest example of this is Ford’s decision to send two 780+bhp Fiestas up the famous Pikes Peak hillclimb course this summer.

Given the stir the announcement of the cars’ participation – and that of double World Rally Champion Marcus Gronholm – has created in Europe, it’s hard not to image the Americans getting similarly excited.

And what better way to introduce people to the Fiesta, which goes on sale in the US in 2010, than to have it flashing by them on full opposite lock, engine roaring and chasing down the course record?

But does 'Win on Sunday, sell on Monday' still apply? In this day and age it might not actually persuade someone to buy a specific model of car, but it must surely influence the way they think about it.

Technorati Tags: Pikes Peak, Marcus Gronholm, Ford Fiesta, World Rally Championship

Williams throws its hat into the F1 ring

Alan Henry — Tue, 26 May 2009 09:38:00 GMT

The complexities of contemporary F1 politics were thrown into sharp relief in the wake of Jenson Button’s victory for the Brawn-Mercedes team in Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix with the news that the rival Williams squad had become the first entrant formally to file its entry for the 2010 FIA World Championship.

It’s now the 40th anniversary of Frank Williams’s debut as an F1 entrant, fielding a private Brabham-Cosworth for the charismatic brewery heir Piers Courage, and contesting world championship grands prix has been the team’s core business ever since.

So when bedrock racing teams like Williams are seen committing themselves to organisations like the Formula One Teams’ Association, which less than a week ago was proclaiming that its members were ‘totally unified’ in their efforts to force FIA president Max Mosley into a U-turn over his planned £40m budget cap rules, it’s clear that they can only go so far in the role of dissenters.

As their chief executive Adam Parr made clear at Monaco, “Williams has always maintained that it has a binding contract with Formula One Management [Bernie Ecclestone’s company] and the FIA to take part in the world championship from 2008 to 2010.”

Read Autocar's F1 circuit guides

You can see their point. If Toyota, BMW or Mercedes can’t race in F1, it’s disappointing, but not the end of the world. They just go back to selling cars. But if Williams cannot race in F1 then it definitely is the end of their world.

See what I mean?

Technorati Tags: F1, Williams, FIA

Ecclestone plays hardball with Ferrari

Alan Henry — Fri, 22 May 2009 11:15:44 GMT

Bernie Ecclestone is poised to play what could be his trump card in the political F1 battle involving Ferrari and the FIA by reminding the legendary Italian team that they may have to pay back millions of dollars in commercial rights income if they carry out their threat to withdraw from the F1 World Championship in 2010.

Ferrari has threatened to quit in protest at the planned £40m budget cap being imposed on the teams by the sport’s governing body. But Ecclestone, discussing the matter on Renault team principal Flavio Briatore’s yacht at Monaco, has pointed out that the Prancing Horse has an ongoing commercial commitment to the sport until the end of 2012.

Ferrari has a special deal which gives them 5 per cent off the top of the reputed $1 billion (£660m) annual commercial rights cake before it is divided up amongst the teams. Then they get their normal share as well, a deal which Ecclestone offered them in order to bind them into F1 for the long term.

Ecclestone yesterday said the Italian team would be expected to honour the terms of the Concorde Agreement last signed by Ferrari and the other teams in January 2005.

"We would always respect our contracts," said Ecclestone in Monaco for Sunday's grand prix. "All the teams that have signed contracts with us would expect us to respect them and we would expect the same from Ferrari. They are saying they are going to walk, we are saying we hope they respect their contract."

Luca di Montezemolo, the Ferrari supremo, may think he can get the upper hand over FIA president Max Mosley, but if he thinks he’s going to outflank Ecclestone he clearly has been taking his eyes off the road.

Technorati Tags: Monaco Grand Prix, Ferrari, Luca di Montezemolo, FIA, Ecclestone