Chink in FOTA Armor? Ferrari Scold BMW
January 14, 2009 by Negative Camber
Filed under Top Story
We’ve been big proponents of the formation of FOTA and have made no bones about our endorsement that this organization is needed to steer F1 into the future but unanimity is the key to FOTA’s success. With that spirit in mind, Ferrari has scolded BMW for their bullish position on KERS for 2009. Is this the first chink in their armor? IT is inevitable that the teams will struggle with total unanimity in FOTA as they all do not share the same prime mover of what it means to be in F1 and I am sure this will pass.
Grace and I have maintained that BMW sees KERS as the missing link between themselves and McLaren and Ferrari. IS it any wonder they intend on using it to full use? Ferrari, in my opinion, are perfectly correct in their assessment of KERS and F1 but they also have to realize that BMW is using this technology to be competitive with Ferrari so they should understand the desire to use it for 2009…especially after spending so much money on the system.
in the F1 teams’ alliance FOTA, however, total unanimity is necessary for measures to be adopted immediately.
“We specified that resolutions must be reached unanimously,” Domenicali confirmed at the Madonna di Campiglio ski event in the Italian Dolomites.
“But sometimes you have to compromise as well,” he is quoted as saying by the German news agency SID. “Everyone could accept that, except BMW.
“Only if we all work together will the future of F1 be rosy, rather than dark, as we are experiencing now,” Domenicali charged.
He insists that the track-debut of Ferrari’s KERS system on Monday went well, “however it is the wrong moment to introduce such a complex system”.
“It has nothing to do with formula one. A lot of money has been thrown out of the window,” Domenicali added.
interpretation
ours sucks and it sounds like theirs doesn’t
So while I hate to say it….dont be upset because their Kers is better…maybe honestly afraid of the BMW system…
who’s the jerk that invented such utopic and useless condition? Unanimity is only worth for very obvious topics, when an oligopoly or a dictator force -or works below the table- a decision, not necesarily based on real, common interest. If the interest behind some FOTA members is to eliminate some technology that goes against the sport then unanimity is not a must.
However, it is dishonest to attack Thiessen and bmw to refuse to flush all the efforts they put into KERS because the big teams didn’t nailed on time. We whould expect the same reaction from a Dennis or a Montezemolo if Macca or Ferrari knew they have a good advantage with their new technology. Let bmw to get awarded with several gp’s in 2009 and work they arses off to come up with something competitive to regain the lead, I would said.
KERS, turbos or any form or engine energy reconversion are not crazy things, it would be nice to see teams -again- showing off new exccetricities from season to season and encourage the imagination of engineers and designers. If money or budget caps is the problem, you can always scale down the ideas and still show it up. Let the teams be the stars of the sport, not the FIA, FOM or any other organization leeching from the real protagonists
There will always be potential land mines with a team-led organization. In the USA, the CART series was run by the teams, and they went from being super successful and making inroads into F1’s popularity in the late ’80s and early ’90s, to getting shut out of the Indianapolis 500 in 1995, to going bankrupt and being sold off in 2004.
KERS is the perfect example of how difficult it is to balance the interests of individual teams versus the organization as a whole. Absolutely, if it were Ferrari with the KERS advantage, you’d bet they wouldn’t be making public statements calling for KERS to be set aside. But now they have to try their case in the court of public opinion to since they do not have unanimous support within the organization.
Perhaps BMW has trumped everyone and will have an advantage, or maybe they are bluffing. But the KERS issue is only a foreshadowing of the types of controversies that FOTA will need to deal with as it continues to evolve.
For sure JD there is a risk when executive decisions force teams to spend fat budget to create something new, kers is an expensive, unknown, risky experiment, but teams should’ve discuss the issue earlier. Now the money have been spent its kind of late. As FOTA they should use some PR and not expose weaknesses by making statement like montezemolo did. M