| The rise of Sergio Marchionne Dear subscriber, The 2014 Bahrain Grand Prix was memorable for a superb wheel-to-wheel battle in the late stages between the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, but that wasn’t the sum of a dramatic day for Formula 1. Already long gone from the circuit by the time Hamilton took the flag was Ferrari’s Luca di Montezemolo, who thus sidestepped the sight of Fernando Alonso and Kimi Räikkönen trailing in ninth and 10th. Before departing for the airport, however, the flamboyant di Montezemolo had had plenty to say about the new ‘hybrid’ Formula 1, and not much of it was good. “The risk of the new rules,” he said, “is drivers having to think about saving tyres and fuel – this is not Formula 1, which should be extreme, from the first to the last lap. And the rules should not be so complicated that the people don’t understand what’s going on…” Luca also threw in a remark critical of the noise – or lack of it – made by the new engines. Personally, this has always concerned me less than a lot of people, but nearly two years on I can’t take issue with his observation that ‘Formula 1 should be extreme’. Perhaps, to remain relevant in a changing world, and to maintain interest from the manufacturers, at least some emphasis on ‘saving fuel’ was a necessity, like it or not, but ‘saving tyres’ was a very different matter. Read the full feature here > |
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