Spanish businessman and Formula E founder and CEO Alejandro Agag believes that Scuderia Ferrari’s latest Formula One quit threat should be considered nothing more than a tactical business ploy. The Maranello team issued a quit threat last November after Liberty Media unveiled a blueprint of its future vision for the sport. Displeased with the proposal of a new set of engine regulations for 2021, company president Sergio Marchionne said the Scuderia “will not play” unless conditions were favourable.
Ferrari added talk of a potential breakaway series to its quit threat and urged F1 bosses to take its warning seriously or “risk playing with fire”. But Agag reckons the noise coming out of Maranello should be viewed as nothing more than an attempted bargaining chip ahead of the next round of negotiations regarding F1’s future direction: “I think it does this [quit threat] probably in this moment to get a better negotiating position with F1,” Agag told ESPN. “I guess they are going to have a negotiation soon about the new contract. So that is probably more a tactical move than a real move.”
Speaking to ESPN at an event in central London earlier this week, Alejandro Agag said that Formula E could be the only viable form of motorsport left by 2040. Reigning F1 world champions and German giants Mercedes have already announced plans to quit DTM and join the all-electric grid in 2019, while Ferrari has also expressed an interest in Formula E, stating it “needs” to be involved with the series in the coming years.
However, Alejandro Agag revealed that he has not yet held any talks with Scuderia Ferrari over a possible switch and ruled out such a move from happening in the near-future: “I haven’t had any direct discussions with Sergio Marchionne or Ferrari and Fiat is a group that has not done so much on electric. I think they will eventually, but I think it will take time for them. Of course we would love to have them, but I don’t see this happening soon.” – Formula E founder and CEO concluded.
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