Minardi was able to make the race in Melbourne having gone through a rigmarole involving back of pit disputes and the ruling of a High Court judge. What a great story it was, with little Paul Stoddart representing the ordinary airline owner, the small nabob, the average plutocrat in the street, and Bernie mocking him for being the boy in the class with the threadbare blazer,
There was much mileage in the story, but I wonder if everything was as it seemed. The future of Formula One is up for grabs. We have Bernie on one side and the GPWC on the other. It reminds me of the FISA/FOCA 'War' of 1979 82. In that affray, the major manufacturers, like Fiat/Ferrari and Renault went with FISA and the likes of McLaren and Williams sided with FOCA (Bernie). That was all about money and how it should be shared while current issue is, er, all about money and how it should be shared.
A curious thing happened during the 'FISA/FOCA War', Ken Tyrrell went bananas. Ken had been in racing for nearly thirty years, as a driver, a team manager and then a team owner and nobody had heard a peep from him. He was affable Uncle Ken, diamond geezer. I wouldn't have wanted to have got on the wrong side of him, but he threw his wobblies behind closed doors. Suddenly Ken was slapping in protests and they tended to be generic. Ken became Protester General for FOCA.
Ken had been going through a lean time financially. He had little sponsorship, but Bernie did not want him to go under because he was a loyal member of FOCA. I am told by one of Ken's friends that he owed Bernie £13 million when it was suggested that he sell his team to British American Tobacco and so Team Tyrrell became BAR.
I was reminded of Ken Tyrrell when I saw what Paul Stoddart was up to in Melbourne. Didn't Bernie put money Minardi's way a couple of years ago? You cannot have 18 cars on the grid, that's in the contract, and nobody wants a couple of teams supplying a third car even if it can't score points. A car can affect the outcome of a race simply by being on the track. Jacques Villeneuve can affect a race just by being in it. Bernie needs Minardi like he once needed Tyrrell, not because it is a major force in the sport, but because Minardi's vote is as good as anyone's.
It seems that Fiat/Ferrari is now firmly behind Bernie, money having passed hands. That means the GPWC is down to BMW, DaimlerChrysler and Renault, though Honda and Toyota are believed to be included on the GPWC side in principle. On the other hand, BMW and DaimlerChrysler do not own racing teams.
Fiat is known to be in deep financial trouble. General Motors, which owns a quarter of the shares has just paid $1.2 billion so it does not have to buy the rest. One of Fiat's options is to sell shares in Ferrari.
That idea has been floated before, but the timing was not right, and it has even been suggested that Fiat would sell shares in a group comprising Alfa Romeo, Ferrari and Maserati.
Until recently, Ferrari owned Maserati, then Fiat bought it. That did not change the everyday running of the two marques, where co-operation is close, the Maserati M12 is almost an open topped Ferrari Enzo with a different body, but it did open the way to selling them separately.
As with many high market brands, Ferrari cars are hugely over priced. The Honda NSX, Porsche 911 Carrera, Noble M12, and others, will all deliver more bangs for your buck. Ferrari production is suppressed in order to maintain exclusivity and the customer pays over the odds to purchase rarity and the prancing horse on the bonnet.
