Poll Ferrari threaten to quit F1... again!

[FB]

For many F1 fans Ferrari are F1 (although I'm sure many of you don't want to hear that). What other team generates the same level of support and passion around the World regardless of the nationality of their drivers? I don't see Mclaren land in Abu Dhabi, I don't see people making a pligramage to Woking to see the MTC or Didcot to have a look round the Williams factory unless they are serious F1 fans. If I were to say to my wife, we're on holiday in Italy fancy a trip to the Ferrari museum in Maranello I guarantee you she would say yes. A trip to Enstone or Hethel might not have quite the same effect, even a visit to the Mercedes factory in Stuttgart would probably have her rolling her eyes

The loss of Ferrari to F1 would be a massive body blow to the sport and would marginalise it to the everything but the hard core fans. It would still exist, I would still watch it, but there would be a large part of the soul of the sport missing without the red cars.

On another tack, if you saw a Ferrari Enzo or F430 or Testarosso sitting in a car park wouldn't you go and take a look and wish it were yours? If one growls past you on the motorway don't the hairs on the back of your neck stand up and you look at it and go WOW!? Owning a Porsche, a Jag a Lotus or a Noble might be special but not as special as owning a Ferrari. They are a bi-word for passion, design, speed, engineering, there is simply something special about a Ferrari, about Ferrari. Often imitated, some times equaled but never bettered.

So let's not get all pompous about what and who Ferrari are. Yes, they're part of Fiat but their heritage is much, much more than any other sports car maker and, unlike many, they are still doing what they are best at all these years after they were created.

I sincerely hope Ferrari don't leave F1 as it would be a different sport to the one I have enjoyed for the last 30 years.

 

[Road of Bones]

Very interesting - thanks GermanF1!

I am quite surprised that Vettel is not creating the same level of support that Michael enjoyed though - he's just as irritatingly dominant as Schumi was!

Regarding the Ferrari question - although I voted "Indifferent", as personally I feel no special allegiance to them, I do feel that F1 would be somehow diminished by their absence. For there to be decent competition, you must have several protagonists with different views on how to go racing - it is one of the reasons that F1 generates so much passion amongst its supporters, and to be quite honest, it is our passion for the fight amongst the teams that makes the spectacle so enthralling (or infuriating, when one team exerts dominance over the rest).

 

[FB]

Just another thought, which team does every driver one day hope they end up driving for? Ferrari! Senna said he wanted to end his career there, Vettel has stated that one day he would love to drive for them, Schumacher went there to make the team great again. I bet if you were to ask anyone on the grid "If you could win a Grand Prix in any car which car would it be?", the answer would always be Ferrari. A driver winning their home Grand Prix is special, any driver winning the Italian Grand Prix in a Ferrari must be something else.

I'm sure Vettel is very proud of what he has achieved in a car made by a fizzy drinks company but I'd bet your dollars to doughnuts if you were to offer him the same success in one of the red cars he'd tear your arm off.

 

[FB]

Did I get a bit preachey?

 

[Slyboogy]

On another tack, if you saw a Ferrari Enzo or F430 or Testarosso sitting in a car park wouldn't you go and take a look and wish it were yours? If one growls past you on the motorway don't the hairs on the back of your neck stand up and you look at it and go WOW!? Owning a Porsche, a Jag a Lotus or a Noble might be special but not as special as owning a Ferrari. They are a bi-word for passion, design, speed, engineering, there is simply something special about a Ferrari, about Ferrari. Often imitated, some times equaled but never bettered.

I agree with all of your points in the post, but what I have highlighted in bold is what stands out the most

 

[Brogan]

Off topic, but it's always been Lamborghini for me.

There are a few Ferraris in the garage downstairs, as well as Bentleys, Porsches, etc.
It's always the Gallardo and Murcielago I drool over though.

 

[GermanF1]

Yeah I prefer my Koenigsegg Agera R or my Pagani Huayra over my Ferraris as well, they're lame...

 

[Slyboogy]

Times are changing, there are more supercars and hypercars competing with Ferrari, as much as I like Lamborghini (the Diablo was one of my favourite cars) I tend to find most of their cars similar since the Murcielago was released, and they seem to have gone crazy with the Stealth Jet Fighter look.

The other supercars look like something from space , while the Ferrari has always been fast, sleek and classy. Much like the way Lamborghini's are. (where)

 

[no-FIAt-please]

My dream cars are the McLaren F1, Lamborghini Murcielago, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX and Jaguar E-Type.

 

[Andy Karter]

It would depend on what they did instead, and how much media effort they could put behind it.

John Surtees talks of his days at Maranello, and how the team only started taking an interest in the F1 season in June...once the Le Mans 24 Hours had been won. That was what was selling the cars back then - and it would be easier to argue for relevance to the customers' product too.

Obviously I am aware that times have changed a great deal, but nothing is set in stone, and F1 has no divine right to be the category of motorsport with the greatest exposure, or level of interest.

Well I suppose that there are plenty of sports/super car manufacturers out there that don't compete in F1 so in that respect I agree that there's a life outside of F1 if they want it. It's just difficult to see how it would all work if their stated reason for existence is to race at the highest level.

 

[teabagyokel]

Over the last years I figured out that you can't compare German people to British people as far as their interest in sport/athletes is concerned.
The average German only cares about a certain sport, when there is a German competing for wins and championships. This is fueled by/or the reason for (I don't really know) TV stations only covering sports when Germans are competitive.

You can compare German fans to British fans on that one, although oddly British TV only seems interested in any sport where the British are plucky losers . How Mark Cavendish has not won Sports Personality of the Year is beyond me.

Outside Italy, F1 would continue as before for everyone else. That is, there would be interest when their drivers are successful. Spanish fans supported Alonso in blue, silver and babysick coloured cars. Kubica has never driven for Ferrari, McLaren or Red Bull and still has caused a massive upsurge of F1 fandom in Poland.

And, I assure you, F1 is now better for losing the horrific monolith that was Ferrari in 2000-04. The bribing, cheating, rule-writing entity that distorted F1 for the worse. It would be better to lose the Ferrari name forever than to ever return to those days.

 

[Bill Boddy]

.... How Mark Cavendish has not won Sports Personality of the Year is beyond me....

And if he does not win it this year after winning the WDC there will be no justice.

 

[Brogan]

Whitmarsh disagrees with Ferrari's push for 3 car teams: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/96031

 

[FB]

But with Mclaren having Force India and Virgin as "junior" teams they don't need a third car. Perhaps Ferrari need to be more canny and get closer to Sauber and/or HRT.

 

[Chad Stewarthill]

But with Mclaren having Force India and Virgin as "junior" teams they don't need a third car. Perhaps Ferrari need to be more canny and get closer to Sauber and/or HRT.

Or perhaps Ferrari just need to stop threatening to leave if they can't have the game played their way.

 

[Mezzer]

But with Mclaren having Force India and Virgin as "junior" teams they don't need a third car.

Are they really McLaren's junior teams? IMO that's a pretty significant leap, and certainly not to the extend of Red Bull/Toro Rosso.

 

[FB]

I'm probably over egging the pudding - FI are perhaps best regarded as a Mercedes junior team in terms of driver development (at least that's how it appears to me). Remains to be seen how the relationship with Marussia works out. If they turn up with Merc engines at some point then we will know what is going on.

 

[Brogan]

If they turn up with Merc engines at some point then we will know what is going on.

What?
That Mercedes have another junior team?



Don't forget that McLaren are a customer of Mercedes too.

 

[FB]

I love the idea of Mclaren being the Merc "Junior" team. Maybe Jenson and Lewis are being "groomed" to move up at some point

 

[Mezzer]

Maybe Jenson and Lewis are being "groomed" to move up at some point

Schumi's got to retire again at some point!!