Published 17:50 IST, April 23rd 2020
Ferrari denies quitting F1 rumours by slamming British newspaper for misleading headline
Ferrari has issued a statement denying claim made by team principal Mattia Binotto that Ferrari out of F1 is a possibility if the budget cap is lowered further.
- SportFit
- 3 min read
Formula 1 team Ferrari slammed British media publication The Guardian on Thursday for writing a misleading headline over Ferrari F1 team principal Mattia Binotto's comment about the reduction of the budget cap in F1. According to the previous report published, it was claimed that Mattia Binotto warned about Ferrari considering their Formula 1 future if severe budget caps are imposed.
Ferrari clears air over quitting F1
According to the latest report published by RaceFans, Ferrari has issued a statement in which they have denied the claim made by team principal Mattia Binotto that Ferrari going out of F1 is a possibility if the budget cap is lowered further. In the statement, Ferrari clarified that Binotto never mentioned about Scuderia Ferrari quitting F1 but on the contrary, said that they would not want to be put in a position of having to look at further options, besides continuing racing in F1 for deploying their racing DNA, in case the budget cap would be even more drastically reduced, putting at risk hundreds of workplaces.
Slamming The Guardian, Ferrari said that the misunderstanding happened due to the misleading headline of the article which was published at first and was immediately corrected. The statement said that the news piece was originally titled “Ferrari prepared to quit F1 if budget cap imposed, warns Mattia Binotto”, but later on it was renamed to “Ferrari to evaluate F1 future if budget cap imposed, warns Binotto”.
Here's what Mattia Binotto had to say about the reduction of the budget cap in F1
During the interview, Binotto said that $145 million is already a new and demanding request compared to what was discussed in June 2019. He added that the new request cannot be attained without significant sacrifices, especially in terms of our human resources. Binotto further said that if the budget cap gets even lower, then Ferrari would not want to put itself in a position of having to look at other further options for deploying our racing DNA.
The Ferrari F1 team Principal also said that in F1, there are teams with different characteristics and they operate in different countries, under different legislation and with their own ways of working. Therefore it is not simple and straightforward to make structural changes simply by cutting costs in a linear fashion.
Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari future in doubt
3-time F1 champion Sebastian Vettel's future with Ferrari is in serious doubt after the German rejected a one-year contract extension. According to a report published by Essentially Sports, there are rumours that Sebastian Vettel is unhappy with the proposed contract and is looking to get a looking at a multi-year contract with a salary much higher than what Ferrari is currently offering as part of its new deal. Earlier, Sebastian Vettel had stated his desire to continue driving for Ferrari with his current deal set to expire at the end of 2020.
Updated 17:50 IST, April 23rd 2020