F.1 – Minardi: “Will Bernie manage to change course to this F.1?”

I’ve read Pino Allievi’s interview to Bernie Ecclestone on the Gazzetta dello Sport. I’ve already talked about that issues several times, since this Formula 1 makes one think and worry. I agree with Bernie. It’s time to review the technical regulations and come back to “simpler” and cheaper engines, leaving the manufacturers participating in the WEC Championship carry the commitment to built of new generation cars. Is not sustainable a system in which the cost of a Power-Unit represents 1/3 or 1/4 of the entire budget of a team. But that’s not all. To manage and enter these Power Units on the car, there is a considerable increase in costs on the remaining items.

If there’s no remedy in the short term, the risk is throwback to the seventies, when there was only one engine – Ferrari – against all motorized Cosworth. Today, the risk is to have only one challenge: Ferrari vs Mercedes.

The economic difficulties of some teams, the skyrocketing costs and the need to revise the rules are not the only clouds on the horizon. After what happened in Shanghai at Renault, reliable sources anticipate us that before the Spanish Grand Prix an Extraordinary Board of Directors will be held directly by the Chairman and CEO of Renault, Carlos Ghosn, being about the situation Renault in Formula 1. It is not certainly a good sign. A Board of Directors finalized may open in two scenarios: direct engagement with its own team (we have already talked about), or other more drastic “situations”. It’s true that there are agreements until 2016 with Red Bull and Toro Rosso, but it would not be the first time that a manufacturer takes bad roads for our sport, giving the perfect excuse to teams (the few solid and well-funded ones!) that get an engine to withdraw without incurring contractual penalties. A similar scenario would be definitely traumatic. What kind of starting grid would remain? I will not even think about it!

In Bahrain, a hot weekend starts under many points of view. Team Principals have to present new solutions and Mr. E has to evaluate new entries in the Circus on the engines front. There are companies that stand there watching – someone having already ready engines – stopped only by the lack of long-term strategies. One above all is BMW, which just in mid-May will have a new AD, Mr. Kruger, a man with professional experience in Motorsport. It’s time to use all the needed energies, in order to safeguard what for me, and not only, it is still the most amazing sports show in the world.