Ecclestone calls Ferrari `selfish'

[Neutrino]

http://msn.foxsports.com/story/3032766

LONDON (AP) - Formula One's commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone has accused Ferrari of being "selfish" by refusing compromises to make the sport more competitive.

"They (Ferrari) have a policy to win the world championship," Ecclestone said in an interview Thursday in The Guardian newspaper. "They don't want to take any risks, but what's a little bit bad is their selfishness over not wanting to compromise over the regulations to make the racing a little more challenging.

"The one-by-one qualifying, for example, has been a complete disaster and Ferrari haven't done anything to help as they won't agree to change anything. They are terribly selfish like that."

Ecclestone also suggested Michael Schumacher would not have won seven series titles had Ayrton Senna lived to race against him.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm a Schumacher fan," he said. "But would he have won as many championships as he has done if Senna had not left us? I very much doubt it.

"Ayrton never had the luxuries Michael has had. Michael has never had anybody in his team who has been able, or been in a position, to challenge him. And he's certainly in the best team there is."

The newspaper said the Chinese race would generate US$40 million in fees and trackside advertising, most of which goes to Ecclestone and his myriad of F1 subsidiaries.

Ecclestone said TV audiences for Formula One in Shanghai and Beijing exceed "the total viewership in the whole of Europe."

[Neutrino]

WTF

"They (Ferrari) have a policy to win the world championship,"

No really? And here I though teams entered F1 to lose


And what is up with that hint about Senna. Would the championship be better with a Senna Schumi rivalry? Sure. But what has Ferrari or Schumacher have to do with it. Its not their fault he died. So why even bring that up.

Seriously Ecclestone whines like a kid that Ferrari is too good.

[RallyRaider]

Bad thing about Eccelstone is that he is such a tosser that God (or the other guy) will be in no hurry to meet him. So I guess we're stuck with him.

There is an element of truth in what he says, Ferrari have often been the stumbling block to changes in F1. But Bernie is the supposed architect behind the Concorde Agreement, which gives Ferrari the power. So he is only highlighting his own failure.

Can't say I agree on the Senna bit either. Schumacher would have won 1994 anyway, given the superiority of the Benetton. Maybe Senna would have been harder to take out at Adelaide though? Williams 1995 year went bad in the middle due to reliability, doubt that would have been different with Senna. Granted he probably would have made less mistakes than Hill did towards the end but by then it would have been too late. And by the time the Brawn-Byrne-V10-Bridgestone combination got up to speed at Ferrari, Senna would have been retired anyway.

[Neutrino]

Originally Posted by RallyRaider

Bad thing about Eccelstone is that he is such a tosser that God (or the other guy) will be in no hurry to meet him. So I guess we're stuck with him.

LOL good one

Originally Posted by RallyRaider

There is an element of truth in what he says, Ferrari have often been the stumbling block to changes in F1.

That might not be a very bad thing afterall since, considering some of the changes Eccelstone wants to make, left uncheked, we would have just F1 drivers racing shopping carts while making engine noises.

[RallyRaider]

Actually it kind of works out the other way, Ferrari seem to be the only team that want to stick with the FIA’s hare brained schemes when they don’t work. Here is the scenario: Max and the FIA railroad through their changes using "force majeure' or safety as a premise. It proves to be a failure, so the majority of the teams propose to change it back to the way it was. However under the Concorde Agreement a certain majority of teams are needed to overturn the decision. Ferrari most of the time are the dissenter. Not only that but because of the way the Agreement is written Ferrari's vote carries more weight than any other team. That scenario played out on changes to re-ban refuelling after Verstappen’s fire in 1994, to get rid of the narrow track and grooved tyres after the ugly reality set in late 1997. Now Bernie seems to be saying they have vetoed changes away from single lap qualifying.

[drprince89]

And to think all this time i thought all times were in it for themselves, now i undeerstanfd that theyre there to help the pther guy out and get screwed in the ass.

[cloverleaf]

I can see it from both sides. Bernie realises that the sport isnt as exciting as it could be...however, I believe that a lot of that is down to the FIA's knee jerk rule changes rather than Bernie or Ferrari. The FIA changed the qualifying regs to make it supposedly 'better'. Has it? No, the old qualifying system was better...why did they change it? to harm Ferrari. If they want the teams to become closer and more in competition with each other then I would say that they should leave the regs alone for a few years...that lets the lower budget teams catch up. No way are they going to be as good as the top teams but it stops them having to go through all the expense of designing and building a new car for each season. If they had that sort of stability I doubt that Jaguar would be in the position that they are currently in.

When Bernie calls ferrari selfish it is beginning to piss me off...Why are they selfish? Because they want to win? I can see why they dont want yet another change to qualifying because they were against the changes in the first place. They were railroaded through without Ferraris wishes behind the new rules and consequently Ferrari suffered from that (close fight to the wire last year) because their car was optimised for totally different rules (fuel weights totally change the cars characteristics). Also becasue the fuel tank had to be bigger, Ferrari couldnt work as it was designed when the ballast was used as they couldnt fit the amount in that was originally designed for the car. Ferrari don't want yet another vhange becasue the rules seem constantly designed to hurt their competitiveness against the other teams...In addition, they have had to scrap most of the work that they have done on next years car due to yet more knee jerk reactions brought in recently by the FIA.


OOps, Sorry for such a long rant, its been a hard day at work and im tired!

[zebrathree]

Bernie can kiss my arse. He's only interested in the profits and not the racing it seems.

Fuck ém.