Bernie Ecclestone Vs. F1 Teams: The War Begins

... starting with comments made by Luca di Montezemolo.

Formula One teams appear to be on a collision course with Bernie Ecclestone over the way he runs the sport.

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo - who chairs the teams' association Fota - said he was unhappy with many of the ways in which Ecclestone operated.

Di Montezemolo believes the sport does not need a "dictator", adding the time was approaching when Ecclestone, 78, would have to step down.

"I think sooner or later he has to stop," Di Montezemolo told the Times.

Last week the Fota and the sport's governing body, the FIA, agreed a raft of compromises to cut costs over the next two seasons.

Di Montezemolo now wants the teams to use their unified stance to alter the balance of power in F1, which he believes is not being run in a "normal" fashion.

"Do you think it is normal that we don't have one race in North America?" he continued.

"Do you think it is normal we understand from newspapers that the Canadian Grand Prix is over?

"Do you think it is normal that we cannot discuss the timing of races?"

Di Montezemolo has already insisted on another meeting between Fota and the FIA to discuss the teams' earnings.

Under the current agreement, the sport's income is split 50-50 between the commercial rights holders - private equity group CVC Capital Partners - and all the teams.

"We want to know more about the revenues," said Di Montezemolo.

"There is no professional sport in the world where the players get less than 50% of the total cake.

"We have to open an important page with Ecclestone and [CVC boss Donald] MacKenzie, not only in terms of quantity of money but in terms of how to do things - circuits, spectators, hospitality, television, types of track and timing of races."

But Ecclestone hit back at Ferrari president Di Montezemolo by revealing how Ferrari receive a disproportionate share of F1's income.

"Ferrari get so much more money than everyone else," he told The Times.

"The only thing he has not mentioned is the extra money Ferrari get above all the other teams and all the extra things Ferrari have had for years.

"They get about $80m (£54m) more. When they win the constructors' championship, which they did this year, they got $80m more than if McLaren had won it."

The Italian marque has a special place in the sport as it is the only team to have competed since the first championship in 1950.

But Ecclestone revealed Ferrari earned further favour when they broke ranks with the other teams over plans for a rival breakaway series in 2003.

"They were the only team that broke ranks with the other manufacturers - why did they break ranks?" he said. "That's where the $80m comes in.

"What he (Di Montezemolo) should do, rather than asking for money, with all the extra money Ferrari gets, he should share all that amongst the teams."

Di Montezemolo also said there would have been an exodus of the teams backed by major motor manufacturers if the FIA's plans to introduce a standard engine had been approved last week.

Instead, Fota and the FIA agreed a different package of changes, including plans to double engine life in 2009, to limit the revs and to cut the cost of engines supplied to independent teams by approximately 50% of 2008 prices.

"If the standard engine had gone through for all teams, at least four or five carmakers would have abandoned (F1)," Di Montezemolo said.

"I mean four or five plus Ferrari - that is all of them."

Di Montezemolo also accused FIA president Max Mosley of undervaluing and misrepresenting Ferrari's response to his standard-engine plan.

"Mosley said our board was full of people not well informed," he told the Guardian.

"Well there is on our board the vice-chairman of the FIA, Marco Piccinini, a member of the [FIA] world council, [former Ferrari team boss] Jean Todt, Mr Piero Ferrari [son of Ferrari founder Enzo Ferrari] and myself.

"So I don't think that is an ill-informed board. If Mosley thinks so, then he is ill-informed."

SOURCE: BBC SPORT

HOWETT: BERNIE WON'T SPLIT TEAMS

FOTA vice chairman John Howett says confirmation that Ferrari already benefits from more of Formula 1's revenues than the rest of the grid will not drive a wedge between the teams and distract them from their bid to negotiate an overall increase in the share they all receive.

Following the landmark measures agreed between the teams and the FIA to radically cut costs in the sport earlier this month, the Formula One Teams' Association has turned its attention to the distribution of F1's revenues.

Ferrari president and FOTA chairman Luca di Montezemolo last week provoked a stinging attack from the sport's commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone after calling for the teams to get more than the 50% it currently receives of the sport's profits.

Ecclestone responded by confirming the open secret that Ferrari was given preferential financial arrangements to ensure its commitment to F1 several years ago, in what could be seen as a bid to cause friction within FOTA.

But Toyota F1 president Howett says the Ferrari news didn't come as a surprise to the other teams and won't become a sticking point during future negotiations between the currently united body.

"He may be trying to [split FOTA] but all the information that was given is very transparent and openly shared among the members of FOTA, so it was a bit of a non-event because everybody is aware of the historic status [of Ferrari]," he told The Times newspaper.

Instead Howett backed Montezemolo's calls for the distribution of F1's commercial pot to be revaluated, saying that the sport should come more into line with the revenue sharing policy of other major sporting championships, such as European football's Champions League.

"I think the majority position in FOTA is that people feel that the revenue for a modern professional sport is normally distributed more in favour of the participants than the property holder or the commercial rights-holder," he said.

"People want to open that discussion and achieve a much more consistent balance with the status in many other professional sports."

The current revenue policy in Formula 1 sees the teams receive half of the money, with each individual squad's position in the constructors' championship dictating how much of that pot it receives, with the other 50% going to the sport's main shareholders CVC Capital Partners.

Howett believes the share that doesn't go to the teams should partly be used as money to be reinvested into the sport.

"What is the added value for the other 50 per cent?" Howett asked.

"What is that bringing to us and does that enable us to enhance the business?

"If we want to see Formula 1 differentiated uniquely from a GP2-type series, there should be some reinvestment in the core infrastructure and participation in the sport."

SOURCE: ITV-F1