RE: F1 Teams to Slash Engine Costs
Monday 10th November 2008
Ferrari chairman Luca di MontezemoloFormula One teams have decided to reduce the cost of customer engines by over £12m from 2011, Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo has revealed. This should help smaller teams to exist in F1, who could now be paying £4m for an engine instead of £16m.
F1 Teams to Slash Engine Costs
Teams will knock £12m off the price of engines they supply to privateers
Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo
Motorsport boss Max Mosley had been putting pressure on teams to reduce costs in F1 and it is understood that all engine manufacturers have agreed to slash prices in the future. The worry had been that privateer teams, such as Williams, Red Bull, and Force India, would be forced out of the series by spiralling costs.
Announcing the move di Montezemolo said: ‘We unanimously decided that by 2011 an engine will cost £4m, compared to the £16m plus they used to cost.’ Di Montezemolo has recently been nominated as the chairman of the Formula One Teams Association, a body set up to represent their interests in discussions with governing body the FIA.
He also revealed that he destroyed a television after Lewis Hamilton stole the championship from Ferrari driver Felipe Massa. ‘I broke the television, I must tell the truth,’ he said. ‘When a television breaks it makes a terrible bang. My daughter in the other room was given an awful fright. Luckily we had another television so I was able to watch the podium ceremony, which I enjoyed.’
Discussion
Pistonheads said:
He didn't steal the fecking Championship - he won it in one of the best contested seasons I've ever seen and in the face of some distinctly average Steward's decisions.
As for the cost slash - I hope this'll be enough to avoid a single make engine rule.
Phil
HahahahahahahaAs for the cost slash - I hope this'll be enough to avoid a single make engine rule.
Phil
I'm pleased that the price of F1 engines has decreased, we can all buy one now!
Slashing them down from £16m to a mere £4m, wow that is a serious profit margin they've got!
"Di Montezemolo has recently been nominated as the chairman of the Formula One Teams Association, a body set up to represent their interests in discussions with governing body the FIA.
He also revealed that he destroyed a television after Lewis Hamilton stole the championship from Ferrari driver Felipe Massa".
Chairman not at all partisan then?
He also revealed that he destroyed a television after Lewis Hamilton stole the championship from Ferrari driver Felipe Massa".
Chairman not at all partisan then?
burwoodman said:
misquote for sure- not a chance an engine is 16m quid-perhaps he is thinking post rate drop over 4 quarters and the pound buys 0.111116 yen. garbage journalism again. A whole care cost 3M quid 2 years ago!!!
Perhaps they mean an annual contract for engines.. 4m seems quite cheap if that's so.Apache said:
The Ferrari Chairman, a man who thinks LH 'stole' the championship and smashed his telly when he won at Brazil is going to be the chairman of the Formula One Teams Association, a body set up to represent their interests in discussions with governing body the FIA???!!!
f
king great!
I was fuming when I read that he thinks LH "stole" the championship, but read the article again - the word stole isn't in speech marks, and so Mr Ferrari may not have actually said that. Either way, he clearly isn't unbias in his leadership of the F1TA if he gets that angry at an LH win! f
king great!Edited by Lunja on Monday 10th November 13:11
A bit odd that whoever wrote the release chose to denominate the terms in sterling. Certainly, the terms will not be specified in sterling, and one doubts that di Monty thinks about sterling much either, except if he were referring to the metal in which he would not deign to wear a pair of cufflinks.
Yes, we can make the mental conversion, but with FX rates so volatile, it would have been more helpful to know the actual currency and terms.
Watching a bad loser sulk is funny. It's funny when Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger do it, and Luca DiMontazemalo is just another one.
Mind you he's got a lot to sulk about I suppose. Ferrari have pretty much the biggest budget in F1, almost the largest crew, two fast cars, two fast drivers, the FIA and it's stewards bought & paid for not to mention a partisan and racist crowd at Interlagos and yet they didn't win.
That really must suck...
Mind you he's got a lot to sulk about I suppose. Ferrari have pretty much the biggest budget in F1, almost the largest crew, two fast cars, two fast drivers, the FIA and it's stewards bought & paid for not to mention a partisan and racist crowd at Interlagos and yet they didn't win.
That really must suck...
corozin said:
Watching a bad loser sulk is funny. It's funny when Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger do it, and Luca DiMontazemalo is just another one.
Mind you he's got a lot to sulk about I suppose. Ferrari have pretty much the biggest budget in F1, almost the largest crew, two fast cars, two fast drivers, the FIA and it's stewards bought & paid for not to mention a partisan and racist crowd at Interlagos and yet they didn't win.
That really must suck...
Well said that man.Mind you he's got a lot to sulk about I suppose. Ferrari have pretty much the biggest budget in F1, almost the largest crew, two fast cars, two fast drivers, the FIA and it's stewards bought & paid for not to mention a partisan and racist crowd at Interlagos and yet they didn't win.
That really must suck...
The quoted costs are annual , I find it amazing the top man at Ferrari was at home watching the showdown!!!! and.... that he had a television small enough to throw....Hilarious, and now he is F1 unbiased spokesperson....some one else for everyone else and Lewis to beat next year, here here for a proper stewarding system, preferably including an ex-driver.
corozin said:
Watching a bad loser sulk is funny. It's funny when Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger do it, and Luca DiMontazemalo is just another one.
Mind you he's got a lot to sulk about I suppose. Ferrari have pretty much the biggest budget in F1, almost the largest crew, two fast cars, two fast drivers, the FIA and it's stewards bought & paid for not to mention a partisan and racist crowd at Interlagos and yet they didn't win.
That really must suck...
Yes, and now he is foreman of the constructors group, do we forsee rules really helping anyone without such a gargantuan wallet to WIN ? I think not....Mind you he's got a lot to sulk about I suppose. Ferrari have pretty much the biggest budget in F1, almost the largest crew, two fast cars, two fast drivers, the FIA and it's stewards bought & paid for not to mention a partisan and racist crowd at Interlagos and yet they didn't win.
That really must suck...
Saying 'we have cut prices to 25% of what we charged this year' is as several point out, not clear when examined closely. But it puts the donkey cars on the front page again.
zac510 said:
Surely this is selling the engines at a loss when you count in the development costs.
How is that saving costs? Only for the privateers I guess.
I suppose in a way it's a bit like those banger race things they have in Finland (or nearabouts) where you can enter any old car but you have to agree to sell it to any competitor for £500 or something at the end of the race. Thus you wont really want to spend £10,000 on a trick racing engine only to have to flog it to a rival for £500.How is that saving costs? Only for the privateers I guess.
Assuming I understand this correctly, someone like Ferrari or McLaren/Mercedes can still make an uber exotic and expensive engine for as much as they want, but they would also have to supply the same to anyone else who wanted one for a fixed price. Thus the back markers could have engines just as powerful as the front runners for a fraction of the cost.
In theory this should mean the front runners wont bother spending as much on engine development, as if anyone spent loads on developing an engine anyone could just buy one for a fraction of the cost. So say Ferrari spend £10million on their engine to make it more powerful than McLarens engine, but then have to sell it for £4million (assuming prices in the article are correct) then I suppose McLaren could just buy one for £4million, which would make all that extra money spent to get a power advantage completely pointless.
Not sure how that would work in practice with long term engine deals and so on, but I can see what they are getting at, it's actually a suprisingly cunning plan considering some of the hairbrained schemes they come up with.
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