Ferrari: Montezemolo Wants a Crisis Meeting in F1
The president of Ferrari, Luca di Montezemolo, wants to organize a crisis meeting between all the stakeholders of Formula 1. According to him, the discipline is losing its soul and he wants to try to steer it back on course by initiating a meeting with all the teams and companies involved.
Since the profound changes that have affected Formula 1 in recent years, and more specifically this season, several voices have been raised against these changes.
First of all, the president of Ferrari, Luca di Montezemolo, was rather vehement against this new formula proposed by the discipline, which, in his view, loses the essence of what Formula 1 is: “Formula 1 is not working. It is declining because the FIA has forgotten that people watch the race for excitement. People watch the race to be thrilled. No one wants to watch a driver save fuel or tires. They want to see them attack from start to finish. It is sport, yes, but also a show,” he recently stated in the Wall Street Journal.
To further support his statements, the Italian decided to send a letter to Bernie Ecclestone and Donald McKenzie, the holders of the commercial rights of the discipline through the company CVC, to request the organization of a crisis meeting between all teams, media, race promoters, as well as partner companies of Formula 1 and others that are not directly involved, such as some social media, or even Google and Apple.
In this letter, Montezemolo expresses his concern about the direction taken by Formula 1, which has focused a little too much on cost reduction at the expense of competition and attractiveness for the public. The challenges of attracting young fans and retaining major sponsors are among his concerns.
The spokesperson for Ferrari, Renato Bisignani, specifically mentioned to our colleagues at Autosport: There is a necessity to act collectively with the main stakeholders in the sport and to think together, with constructive criticism, in the interest of the sport, with one eye on technology and the other on the spectacle. Formula 1 has been built over the years on a unique marketing and sports platform, and now it is necessary to consolidate its ability to attract global sponsors and engage with fans to make races more exciting.
The president of Ferrari specifies that he is making his Maranello factory available to everyone for the organization of this meeting, which could take place in the week preceding the Italian Grand Prix in Monza, scheduled for September 5th to 7th.
