Domenicali: An important year for the future of Formula 1

2012 might not be the end of the world as predicted by the Mayans, but it will definitely be an important one for Formula 1. This 31st December is the expiry date of the current Concorde Agreement, the document that sets out all the commercial and organizational rules that govern the highest level of motor sport, but clearly decisions regarding the future will have been taken well before that date.

Therefore, it’s easy to understand the journalists’ curiosity on this matter when they met Team principal Stefano Domenicali this morning. “Clearly this is a very important year and we are all aware of that,” he began. “It is equally clear that there is only one offer on the table, given that no alternative solutions were ever established. In the coming months, talks will get underway on the future of the Agreement as we are still in discussion, especially with the bigger teams, despite the fact we have left FOTA, on the subject of cost reduction, discussions where Ferrari has always been at the forefront. Furthermore, one must bear in mind that the RRA is still in force: what still needs to be established – and this something we are looking at in these days – is if we should abide by the first version, signed in 2009, or the one drawn up in Singapore in 2010. The first one envisages very severe spending cuts for 2012, the year it should run out, while the one signed in Singapore has a revised figure and is valid right up to the end of 2017.

“The key point is to understand if this is an important tool for the future,” concluded Domenicali. “What should happen to those who do not abide by the rules: today, only a financial type of penalty is planned, but we need to decide if it would not be better to think also of something on the sporting front and, in that case, who should decide the outcome.”