When Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), the governing body of motorsports, had started an investigation on Ferrari for hiding results of its power unit, many had said that Ferrari would be able to escape much scrutiny, given FIA’s history. Yet, some were hopeful that the sport had changed for good and FIA, for once, would be able to put its foot down if they could find something incriminating against the Italian giant. After all, FIA had taken drastic steps just last year to revise the sport. It had announced spending limits to make the game more competitive.
The euphoria over reforms, however, will not last for long. The FIA earlier this week announced that it had reached a settlement with Ferrari over the issue of the power unit. More important, it did not reveal any details to the investigation as it had filed a confidentiality clause. While seven F1 teams— AlphaTauri, McLaren, Mercedes, Racing Point, Red Bull, Renault and Williams—expressed shock and disbelief over FIA’s settlement, the body threw the rule book at these teams. In a statement released on Formula 1 website, it said that as it could not firmly establish allegations and a court case would have meant protracted litigation it thought best to “enter into an effective and dissuasive settlement agreement with Ferrari to terminate the proceedings.”
While for FIA and Ferrari this does put the issue to bed, other teams, although in protest right now, may also forget about it soon. The economics of F1 is such that hardly anyone can afford to go outside their remit to fight the body. More importantly, with the change of rules soon to be in place and companies looking to launch new vehicles, most would like to turn a new page.
But more damaging is the fact that fans may not be too happy with FIA’s decision. As it is the fan base of the sport is eroding, and F1 is losing the plot to its e-racing counterpart. F1 may survive with the old guard still drawing crowds, but with little enthusiasm for the young, it will be placing too much on shoulders of LeClerc and Verstappen. It, thus, needs to tread carefully. The new world is nothing like the old, and F1 can’t afford to leave everything in the rearview.