The Ferrari Formula 1 team has criticised the FIA for courting new teams at the expense of established manufacturers such as Toyota and BMW, who have left the sport.
The tactic, which Ferrari described as a “holy war”, is in danger of backfiring with two of F1’s four new teams – US F1 and Campos Meta – struggling to make the grid for the first race of the season in Bahrain on March 14.
A column on Ferrari’s official website entitled the ‘Horse Whisperer' said: "Of the 13 teams who signed up, or were induced to sign up, for this year's championship, to date only 11 of them have heeded the call, turning up on track, some later than others, and while some have managed just a few hundred kilometres, others have done more, but at a much reduced pace.
"As for the 12th team, Campos Meta, its shareholder and management structure has been transformed, according to rumours which have reached the Horse Whisperer through the paddock telegraph, with a sudden cash injection from a munificent white knight, well used to this sort of last-minute rescue deal. However, the beneficiaries of this generosity might find the knight in question expects them to fulfil the role of loyal vassal.
"The 13th team, US F1, appears to have gone into hiding in Charlotte, North Carolina, to the dismay of those like the Argentinean, Lopez, who thought he had found his way into the Formula 1 paddock – albeit with help from chairwoman [Cristina Fernandez de] Kirchner, according to the rumours – and now has to start all over again. Amazingly, they still have the impudence to claim that everything is hunky-dory under the starry stripy sky."
Ferrari also hits out at Stefan Grand Prix, which is still hoping to secure an entry for this year's championship.
"Next, we have the Serbian vultures," continued the column. "Firstly, they launched themselves into a quixotic legal battle with the FIA, then they picked the bones of Toyota on its death bed.
"Having got some people on board, around whom there was still a whiff of past scandals, they are now hovering around waiting to replace whoever is first to drop out of the game, possibly with backing from that very same knight in shining armour whom we mentioned earlier."
And Ferrari lays the blame squarely at the door of former FIA president Max Mosley.
"This [situation] is the legacy of the holy war waged by the former FIA president it added. "In the meantime, we have lost two constructors along the way, in the shape of BMW and Toyota, while at Renault, there's not much left other than the name. Was it all worth it?”
