MARCH 20, 2005

Teams to publish new letter to Ferrari

The Formula 1 team principals got together twice on Sunday morning in Sepang and at the end drafted and agreed a letter which is to be sent to Fiat chairman Luca di Montezemolo, indicating their discontent with the way in which Ferrari is making decisions about its involvement in Formula 1 at the moment.

The Formula 1 team principals got together twice on Sunday morning in Sepang and at the end drafted and agreed a letter which is to be sent to Fiat chairman Luca di Montezemolo, indicating their discontent with the way in which Ferrari is making decisions about its involvement in Formula 1 at the moment. The letter will be published immediately after the Malaysian Grand Prix. The document is, as we understand it, signed by all the teams except Ferrari and its engine customer Peter Sauber. The Swiss team owner is in an impossible situation and is not saying where he stands but that position is obviously being influenced by the question of engines.

Talking to the team principals at the moment one gets the distinct impression that the attempts being made the break apart their alliance are, in fact, having the opposite effect because their anger is driving them together - along with a developing understanding of the power that they wield if they stick together. While all of this is not particularly good for F1's image, it is not being reported much in the mainstream press and so is not doing the damage that it sometimes seems to be doing in the hothouse atmosphere of the paddock, where there is a tendency to overestimate the importance of what is going on.