Bernie’s warning: Ferrari threat isn’t idle talk

Liberty Media shouldn’t take Ferrari’s latest threat to quit Formula 1 as nothing more than bluster, so says former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone.

Last week, F1’s new owners announced several changes to the engine regulations aimed at reducing costs, leveling the playing field and increasing the noise of the power units.

这些变化与法拉利进行的并不顺利。

“If we change the sandbox to the point where it becomes an unrecognisable sandbox, I don’t want to play anymore,” warned the Italian marque’s president Sergio Marchionne.

And Ecclestone says it is not an idle threat.

“If they can’t win, they will put forward new regulations,” he told the Independent newspaper.

“If the regulations come out where Ferrari think it is going to be a struggle and they can’t support the money, then they will leave.”

The former F1 supremo also expects the Scuderia to balk at the proposed budget cap that Liberty Media could unveil as early as this week.

“They don’t want budget caps and all that,” he said.

“They want to spend what they can afford to spend and I’ve always said the same thing.

“If people can’t spend they have to go.

“If there are then only three or four teams something would have to be done but until that actually happens nobody is going to do anything.

“All the teams that say they can’t afford it shouldn’t put an entry in.”