FIA President Jean Todt "dismissed the prospect" of a FIFA-style corruption investigation into F1’s governing body, according to Kevin Eason of the LONDON TIMES. But as Todt spoke, "nerves were jangling in the F1 paddock in Montreal, with the European Union competition authorities expected to receive a report into the governance and financing of the sport within weeks." An EU investigation "could blow apart the complex financial deals that have split the sport in two and prompt an inquiry into the way the FIA governs the sport." Todt "is seen as a detached figure in F1, unable and unwilling to intervene in its problems." Todt said, "There is no way that the FIA could have the same problems with corruption that FIFA are experiencing." F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone "was in Montreal to hold an intensive round of meetings with key figures," including Sergio Marchionne, the CEO of Fiat, which controls Ferrari. The face-to-face meeting with Force India Deputy Team Principal Bob Fernley "was the most telling, though." Fernley is leading the resistance among F1’s smaller teams to the imposition of "customer cars," which would "prevent the minnows from operating their own cars." EU investigators "may be prompted to act, with thousands of jobs at risk from the customer car plan being refined during the Montreal talks" (
LONDON TIMES, 6/8). In London, Daniel Johnson wrote a full-scale EU probe "will require an official complaint from one of the teams." They believe that "the manufacturers are pursuing an agenda to drive them out of Formula One by adopting so‑called 'franchise cars,' whereby a smaller outfit buy a ready-made car from a big team." Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren said that "this is simply a contingency should more teams face financial ruin." The headline proposal from the Strategy Group last month "is already dead in the water." The reintroduction of refuelling "has been scuppered by teams’ complaints that it would be expensive, dangerous and actually make the racing worse." Mercedes Motorsport Dir Toto Wolff said, "The feedback was 100 percent negative: too expensive, not safe enough, detrimental to the races and the strategies. So it’s going to go back in the Strategy Group and my opinion is it shouldn’t happen" (
TELEGRAPH, 6/7). The AFP reported former FIA President Max Mosley called for an overhaul of F1 and claimed that in its current structure the decision-making is "completely wrong." In an interview with BBC TV Mosley told former Team Owner Eddie Jordan that "there are clearly things wrong." Mosley: "Four of the teams haven't got enough money and other teams have so much money they waste a lot of it" (
AFP, 6/8). GMM reported Marchionne on Sunday "made his first appearance at a grand prix since taking over as Ferrari president." He said that "the work done by the resurgent Maranello
team and its new boss Maurizio Arrivabene so far" in '15 has been
"exceptional." Marchionne: "The reality is that the (2015) car of last October was not ready. Since then an amazing job has been done, as all the progress we have
made and continue to make every race is almost miraculous." Marchionne said that Ferrari might have made "even more progress relative
to dominant Mercedes" if not for the "constraints imposed by the current
regulations." He added, "Unfortunately, what we did was to build a castle of complex rules in order to defend positions of domination, and even Ferrari is guilty of that" (
GMM, 6/8).
WAVING GOODBYE: The BBC's Andrew Benson reported Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner said that Renault could quit F1 "if the sport does not allow in-season engine development next year." Renault, which supplies engines to Red Bull and Toro Rosso, admitted that it "cannot catch Mercedes and Ferrari this year." Limited in-season development is permitted in '15, "but has been closed off again for next year." Horner said a failure to open it up would be "almost waving goodbye to" Renault (BBC, 6/8).
