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Schumacher backs Ferrari as FIA stand-off continues

Michael Schumacher has publicly backed his Ferrari team, as the row which has seen them threaten to quit the sport continued last night. The legend, who now works as a consultant for the team he led to five driver’s world championships, said that the Italian outfit were right to take the stance they have against the FIA’s proposals.

“I am in complete agreement with my team,” Schumacher is quoted as saying by the Spanish sports daily Marca.

Schumacher went on to say that he believed a compromise would be reached to satisfy both parties, because Ferrari were indispensable to the sport.

“Ferrari is very important to Formula One, because without Ferrari, the championship would be a second-class competition. There must be an agreement that makes it possible for the Scuderia to remain.”

After some days in which a resolution looked likely and various conciliatory noises were made by Bernie Ecclestone, Max Mosley yesterday reset the debate to square one as he re-affirmed his commitment to a budget cap and two sets of rules.

“There is a good chance that when people sit and think about it, common sense will prevail because what is wrong with everybody being limited by the same amount of money, and the performance being limited by the cleverness of the engineers? It is very appealing to a lot of people that and it is fair.

“And you could argue that if one team has got ten times as much money as another, then it is just the same as having a bigger engine. It is actually not very fair,” he told Autosport.

It is thought that the matter will come to a head if teams miss the deadline for applications to the sport for the 2010 season, which expires on May 29.

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