The Formula 1 world is quiet right now. Very quiet. There is, of course, an extra weekend off for the first time since the World Championship began back in March and so F1 people are getting away from the racing. They are sick and tired of the FIA-FOTA conflict, of Max Mosley’s manoeuvres and his seemingly endless thirst to hold on to the office of FIA President. The settlement that was agreed seemed to have sorted out the problems, and no-one really cares who is seen to win or seen to lose – except Mosley. If the conflict does revive in a few days time he will find himself more isolated than ever in F1 circles, even if the FIA clubs continue to fawn on him. That is their choice. It is their organisation and their World Championship. If they think that keeping the president is more important than keeping the World Championship then that is a choice that they will make. I think that the FIA is a perfectly good organisation, and it does important work, but when it comes to F1 mistakes have been made and the best thing is to sort out the problems rather than making too much noise about sovereignty and things like that. If pushed FOTA will do its own thing and the FIA championship will become a shadow of its former self. It really is that simple. There comes a time when people are not willing to be pushed around further and it seems to me that FOTA’s unlikely unity is a sign that this has happened in F1. I never expected FOTA to remain united.
More interestingly, however, the recent days have seen rumours in the automotive world that Ferrari is looking very seriously about producing hybrid automobiles before the 2016 Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulations come into force in the United States of America. This will mean that car companies need to have fuel-efficient cars in order to avoid substantial fines from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The word is that Ferrari has applied for a patent on 4 x 4 technology for a future hybrid production model. Ferrari has already said it is going to build a hybrid, but its intention is not to pander to environmentalists, but rather to get better performance for the cars. The 4 x 4 plan seems to be to improve traction. Ferrari recently submitted patent proposals for a new twin-turbo design “to provide a four-wheel-drive vehicle with hybrid propulsion”. At the moment Ferrari’s only hybrid programme is the Formula 1 KERS system, which converts braking energy into electricity, charging a battery that then powers an electric motor which a driver can use when he needs it. According to the patent filed the hybrid Ferrari would use conventional petrol-powered rear wheels but would use electric power for the front wheels. It will allow for electric-only propulsion at slow speeds, which ought to improve the emissions.
The FIA has made no secret of its desire to have hybrid technology developed in F1 but the KERS programme has not been a success, with most of the teams dropping the system already.
Well, Fiat owns Ferrari (in some way), and also now Chrysler, an American company that may finally be hoping to redeem itself, green-wise. A souped up hybrid Chrysler seems a likely result, given the continual taste in the American market for raw power — or the flashy semblance thereof — which Chrysler has long projected.
Mosley does indeed seem determined to hang around for, as Bernie put it at Silverstone, “For as long as he wants to”. He does seem to relish every challenge and whilst the better route would have been to quietly serve out his time and then walk away, he took exception to how he felt he was being ‘mis-treated’ by the media.
So instead of meeting his challenge, I think FOTA has the right idea and is ignoring him whilst they get on with their own business. After all, aren’t you supposed to ignore bullies? They only have power whilst they have attention….
Ignoring Max who?