Formula One 2017: Autódromo José Carlos Pace

When it’s over, it’s over. It’s distinctly possible that Bottas captures 2nd place in the Driver’s Championship as Vettel has a mere 15 point lead while Bottas has the Pole in today’s race. Scuderia Marlboro has been distinctly outclassed yet again and in typical petulant Maranello fashion are threatening to leave.

Ferrari have been in F1 since day one but this may be the beginning of the end
by Giles Richards, The Guardian
Thursday 9 November 2017

Sixty-seven years on from when Enzo Ferrari entered his team in their first Formula One world championship, his obsession has left an extraordinary legacy. The Scuderia are the only team to have entered every season since F1 began and its most successful, with 16 constructors’ and 15 drivers’ championships. It is a remarkable record that to an extent reflects Ferrari’s ruthless attitude to racing and his single-mindedness in pursuing that end.

Ferrari originally only begrudgingly built road cars to fund the automobiles he wanted to take to the tracks but the emphasis has long since shifted and the Scuderia’s presence in F1 is now very much part of the company’s marketing of road cars, an arrangement recently called into serious question, potentially threatening the future of the team in the sport.

May I stop at this point and just say-

Screw You!

You whiny ass titty baby.

Without Formula One you don’t have a brand at all and I’m not just talking history since the only reason you build real cars is to fuel Enzo’s obsession. And now you’ve totally sold out to Fiat and have only ever produced over-priced, under-performing, undrivable cars throughout your entire existence as a commercial product.

Liberty has put the hammer down with new regulations that end the Ferrari subsidy (over $68 Million a year) simply because they are Ferrari. You haven’t put a dime into racing for over a decade that Formula One hasn’t paid and the result is a car that is not competitive and hasn’t been since Michael Schumacher drove. And it’s your own damn fault! First it was a miscalibrated wind tunnel and now it’s an engine that is unreliable and sucks when it works at all! You and Sebastian Vettel, the biggest asshole on the track, deserve each other!

What grew from that was the marque that became bigger than any driver. “The reason Ferrari is the biggest brand in the world today, bigger than Formula One in motor-racing terms and the reason people think about Ferrari the way they do is because it is ultimately about the car and not the driver,” says Windsor.

The team have long known of their value to F1 and Enzo’s legacy gives the Scuderia great weight in negotiations, but recent announcements on the new direction for engines did not go down well at Maranello and they have raised once again the threat of them finally calling time on F1.

The current Ferrari president, Sergio Marchionne, expressed his unhappiness and went further in throwing doubt on the new formula for 2021. “Unless we find a set of circumstances the results of which are beneficial to the maintenance of the brand, and the marketplace, and to the strengthening of the unique position for Ferrari, Ferrari will not play,” he said.

See? Unless you put your thumb on the scale for Ferrari, we will take our ball and go home.

Bigger brand than Formula One? Mercedes can say that. Renault can say that. Honda can say that. You build expensive toys for rich old men with small penises. Good riddance!

They have engaged in sabre-rattling before, but there is a very serious air to Marchionne’s statement this time. Where Enzo only wanted to race, the balance sheet is now also major factor. Marchionne added that, financially, leaving F1 would be welcomed. It would be “totally beneficial to the profit and loss … the board would be celebrating here until the cows come home”.

The teams, the FIA and F1’s owner, the Formula One Group, held a strategy group meeting on Tuesday where budget caps are understood to have been the main topic. What was not on the agenda was redistribution of revenue among smaller teams. Under the current commercial agreement, Ferrari are the only team to receive an estimated $68m long-standing team payment.

This reflects the value of the brand recognised by Bernie Ecclestone but the new owner has to find a better way to distribute the revenue if its stated aim of closer racing across more teams is to be achieved.

Well, money don’t buy happy. How about you get off your ass and build a car that belongs on course, otherwise take your place with the Force Indias and Toro Rossos as you sink into well deserved obscurity with the Williams and McLarens and let the big boys like Honda take your place.

Red Bull, much as I hate them, has no problem with the new policy, and they field 2 complete teams.

I am disgusted. I want Mercedes to grind Ferarri’s faces in it more than ever.

Hamilton crashed out in Q1 but he could be sitting in the stands for all the difference it would make except optics. Actually he should probably give his seat to an up and comer to show what they can do with a real car. He also had some people on his team mugged which happens all the time in Brazil. Of course North Korea is likely to nuke the Winter Olympics so some mechanics getting shaken down doesn’t seem such a big deal.

Interlagos means between the lakes and it’s basically a rainy swamp though the track has an interesting twisty middle section. On offer will be Mediums, Softs, and Super Softs.