Marchionne Encouraged
Ferrari chairman Sergio Marchionne has thrown his support behind Liberty’s F1 engine regulation changes but also still stands by his quit threat until the “economics” issues are resolved.
Ferrari had issued a threat to quit Formula One last November, Marchionne has been impressed by Liberty’s vision on the sport’s engine rules having laid out its plans for the next regulation change set for 2021.
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At the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend, the new owners of F1 Liberty Media presented its ideas for the future of F1 to be installed after the current Concorde Agreements conclude at the end of 2020.
This is including the expected retention of the V6 hybrid engines while some tweaking of the current rules to drop the MGU-H units while some parts will be standardised to reduce costs.
While speaking to analysts in a post-results Ferrari conference call, Marchionne had voiced his approval for the future engine rules in F1 but is still looking for a solution to the revenue controls Liberty are looking to introduce.
“I’m encouraged by the change in the attitude that we are seeing from Liberty in terms of the extent of the changes that they’re forecasting in 2021,” Marchionne said. “Probably the biggest indication has been the recognition of the fact that the engine regulations need to reflect sort of the nature of the sport.
“We can’t really dumb down engine development just to accommodate new entries. So the stuff that’s on the table now is potentially workable as a system.
“The economics are not. I think that’s something that we need to go back to Liberty with.”