Ross Brawn, the Formula One Managing Director of Motorsports, has sent a warning to Scuderia Ferrari after its latest Formula 1 quit threats and if confident the sport can survive if the Italian manufacturer exited. The former motorsport engineer and Formula One team principal has been eager to push forward with new owner Liberty Media’s fresh vision for the sport including alterations to the prize money structure and a shake-up of engine regulations in 2021.
Ferrari President Sergio Marchionne has issued a quit threat if F1’s new rules don’t suit his team while the speculations was intensified when former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone said the sport wouldn’t be able to survive without the iconic Italian marque. Ross Brawn has hit back at the reports and is eager to work in collaboration with Ferrari rather than against them but warns any changes will be under Liberty’s “boundaries”:
“I think they [Ferrari] are saying that they have important elements of F1 that have to be maintained and I think we have common ground on that.” – Ross Brawn said, as reported by Sky Sports F1 earlier today – “They are part of the DNA of Formula 1 and we don’t want to lose that but it has to be in the right circumstances. There are boundaries that we feel need to be correct for the sport and hopefully they are boundaries that they can work in. Formula 1 will always survive whatever the teams are in it. We have seen it before with some world champions leaving the sport and sometimes we have had tragedies in the sport but the sport recovers and carries on. It will carry on whether I am in it, whether Liberty is in it or whether Ferrari is in it.” – the Formula One Managing Director of Motorsports explained on Sunday.
Ross Brawn has conceded that fact that losing Scuderia Ferrari would be a huge blow for F1 which is why he’s keen to work with the Italian manufacturer to find solutions to its concerns to suit all parties: “Will it be better when that happens [Ferrari’s exit]? I don’t think so, so we have to find solutions with Ferrari but it has to be around the right parameters,” he said. “We can’t have a situation where we do anything a team wants whether that is Ferrari, Mercedes, Renault etc. We can’t just run a sport on what a team wants.”
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