Ferrari Principal Urges CVC Investment to Retain Team’s Interest

Formula One parent company CVC have been urged to invest in the sport by Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali, in order to guarantee his team’s future interest in the championship.

Rupert Murdoch owned News Corp. have agreed to create a consortium with Italian investment firm Exor, whose CEO is John Elkann, chairman of Fiat, the owner of Ferrari, to investigate a takeover bid for the sport.

Speculation of a takeover has emerged as discussions are set to begin over a new Concorde Agreement, the commercial arrangement that binds together the teams, CVC and the FIA, motorsport’s governing body. Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has previously indicated his displeasure with the current deal, which sees CVC take half of F1’s annual profits of around £600m (US$983m).

In an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport, Domenicali stated: “At the moment everything is calm, but soon something will happen. From the commercial point of view we need to clarify the following points: who will be involved in the talks? I mean which teams and constructors want to stay and which want to enter F1? And who is responsible for the show? A marketing partner is needed. It can be CVC once more, but it must invest in F1 and develop, and we must make sure our sport becomes interesting for young people.

“F1 must speak their language, use their technologies, internet, tablets, social forums, and remain comprehensible for the audience. F1 is interesting for Ferrari only if these points are taken into consideration, and we must avoid changing the rules too often. We need stability, on top of having grands prix in important countries for our sales, first of all in the USA.”

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