- Sauber
Kaltenborn critical of Ferrari attitude towards F1 cost crisis
Ferrari team principal Marco Mattiacci has come under fire from Sauber boss Monisha Kaltenborn over his attitude towards F1's financial problems.
The divide between F1's biggest teams and the rest of the grid has reached a critical stage at which the future of several outfits is in doubt after Caterham and Marussia went into administration. F1's top teams, including Ferrari, are unwilling to give up their share of F1's revenues which they receive in prize money, even though the division is skewed significantly in their favour.
Asked if Ferrari is happy to let teams further down the grid disappear, Mattiacci said F1 had to focus on having competitive outfits and not just a grid of struggling teams.
"Define middle teams, small teams … Formula One need competitive teams," he said. "There are many corporations around the world that should capitalise on the phenomenal motor sport platform like Formula One is.
"We are doing an excellent job with Haas [an US-based F1 team set to join in 2016] and it is very clear what he [Gene Haas] wants to do. He has a long-term plan and a project, a solid investment and a good business reason to get into Formula One. I think that we are working very close with them in order to make a successful story, but yes we need competitive teams.
"I'm not here to say [we want] small or middle[-sized] teams, but competitive teams with a solid background and solid business background."
Kaltenborn countered that argument saying Ferrari's own business model is based on attracting sponsors that will become increasingly sparse without some kind of change.
"Wasn't it Marco who also said that he's getting questions on ROI (return on investment) from his partners?" Kaltenborn asked. "How does he plan to keep that so well going if the way things are going here? What if his partners - who are probably paying a lot - come and say 'What's my return on investment with results? What's my return on investment with viewers going down, with the show not being attractive?'
"So I wonder if his business model is going to work if he didn't have the backing of those kind of partners or a manufacturer? Because I think if the manufacturer wouldn't put that money in there you would have a business model that is defunct. And I know what I'm talking about."
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