Ecclestone Downplays Ferrari's Breakaway Threat

Following the several breakaway threats issued by Ferrari's Luca di Montezemolo in recent days, it was only natural to expect some sort of a reaction from the Formula One chief executive Bernie Ecclestone. The man who is in charge of the whole F1 business through his FOM (Formula One Management) did not bother to respond too acidly however to the Ferrari president.

And that's because this is not the first time Di Montezemolo makes this kind of threats, the last breakaway series topic having been on the FOM and FIA tables in 2009, back when Max Mosley was running the show at the helm of the FIA. And the reasoning behind the threat continues to be the same: a higher percentage of the sport's revenues to go to the F1 teams.

“It's what he (Montezemolo) says every time he goes to Monza every year. 'We need more money'. It's all nonsense,” said Di Montezemolo according to crash.net, citing the Reuters news agency.

“They're not going to break away. They've tried it all before. Luca's a lovely guy but he likes to say these things and then he forgets what he is saying,” he continued, downplaying the latest threats coming from the Maranello headquarters.

What Di Montezemolo asks in fact is that the teams get a bigger piece of the sport's revenues. He forwarded many solutions for how this could be achievable, one of which would copy the system in the NBA (North American basketball professional league), where the team owners control the entire series.

Di Montezemolo underlined the necessity of some changes in the commercial aspects of F1 and warned the CVC and Ecclestone that the new Concorde Agreement will not be signed in 2013 unless these changes will be enforced. However, he stressed the importance of having Ecclestone as head of Formula One, as the series needs someone with a “passion for racing, rather than the stock market.”