Ferrari's veto

[Flat_Steve]

I was reading last week of Ferrari's court case against the FIA. The injunction was thrown out as the court said Ferrari had the power of veto but didn't use it. What I don't understand and haven't seen explained anywhere is: why didn't Ferrari actually use their veto then?

The FIA and the French courts all admit Ferrari had this power, and while the question of whether they should have even had this is valid, that is for another discussion. I'm just wondering why, if the proposal of a lowish budget cap was so distasteful to them, could they not just have said, 'no, we're not having this', thus forcing the FIA back to the drawing board?

Edited by Flat_Steve on Tuesday 26th May 13:20

[rhubarb]

Doesn't Ferrari's veto only apply to major new rule changes? I think what Mosley did with the two tier racing catagory said that with no budget cap there's no real rule changes other than the normal technical restrictions which change on a year by year basis. Therefore there's nothing really different to veto against. I suspect that was the shrewd part of Mosleys plan.

[Flat_Steve]

Wouldn't that have put Ferrari in an impossible situation, with the courts saying 'you should have used your veto' and the FIA saying 'you can't use your veto'?

[andyps]

The court actually said that the veto did not apply to the deadline for 2010 entries to F1. It did, however, acknowledge the technical veto.

[flemke]

I expect another factor is that often a weapon is more powerful when its potential use is hanging over the other side's head, rather than when it is actually being operated.
It appears that Mosley has conceded on most things, for the important reason that otherwise he stood to lose Formula One as we know it. Two months ago, when they might have exercised the veto, Ferrari probably understood the true balance of power better than Mosley did, and thus perhaps they did not exercise it then because they did not expect him foolishly to call their bluff.

[Flat_Steve]

Interesting. So you're saying Ferrari possibly got caught out as they didn't think the FIA would be so bullish, and assumed they would play fair?

[flemke]

Flat_Steve said:

Interesting. So you're saying Ferrari possibly got caught out as they didn't think the FIA would be so bullish, and assumed they would play fair?

Unfortunately, fair has nothing to do with it. Ferrari/FOTA had most of the strong cards. Mosley had few of them, but he failed to appreciate that reality until it was too late. He may have expected FOTA's unanimity to collapse, but that expectation would have been dumb, because the economic imperative was always going to work to keep them together.
I'd guess that Ferrari did not exercise their veto earlier because they overestimated Mosley's intelligence.