F1 2014: A political year in review

The 2014 Formula 1 political season ended precisely as it started: With much squabbling over costs and engine regulations at Formula 1 Commission level. Both issues remain unresolved despite F1's three player groups (governing body FIA, commercial rights holder FOM and the team collective) vowing to engineer solutions that should be the work of a moment - but for F1's intransigent governance procedure.

The scene was set during pre-season testing when F1 tsar Bernie Ecclestone vehemently criticised the (lack of) sound of 2014's power units and their (initial) unreliability despite not having heard the complex hybrid technology run on track.

Indeed, the closest he had come to hearing engines run was on dynamometers at the various suppliers, and there the units are totally sealed off due to health and safety requirements.

This denunciation of the sport and its new formula became a distasteful feature of the season, with broadcasters, team principals/employees, drivers and even promoters rounding on F1's (generally) ugly cars, (convoluted) governance, (inequitable) commercial structures, and (excessively complex) regulations.

Prophets of doom went as far as predicting zero finish rates at the opener - then refused to retract their vitriol until well into the season, and even then only grudgingly. Given this onslaught it was indeed surprising that TV ratings and race attendances fell by 20 per cent year on year...

F1 tried to improve engine sound, but it failed © XPB

Thankfully the on-track action was, in a nutshell, absolutely scintillating, and there was no sight more humiliating than that of (then-) Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo slinking away from Bahrain after arguably the season's best race in which his red cars completed the nether regions of the top ten.

The flamboyant Italian had arrived at the circuit in a blaze of publicity during which he condemned F1 2014-style as "taxi-cab racing", yet the desert island delivered arguably the season's best race. A week later team boss Stefano Domenicali was gone, having resigned honourably and been replaced by Marco Mattiacci, Ferrari's North America's super salesman, who floundered from day one.

Immediately the season ended he was relieved of his private hell, with incoming Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne appointing Philip Morris executive (and thus the Scuderia's main benefactor for 20 years) Maurizio Arrivabene as head of racing. Further announcements are expected imminently, but there is no doubt that the once-proudly Prancing Stallion is limping, and is no longer the political force it once was.

Bahrain marked Montezemolo's penultimate appearance in the F1 paddock, the next (Monza) being his swansong. Rumours had long persisted that his days were numbered, that the utterly ruthless FIAT Chrysler Automobiles boss Marchionne intended listing Ferrari after promising to increase annual sales by 40 per cent to 10,000 units.

Montezemolo, a tifosi to his very core, robustly opposed the strategy, and on-track success may well have saved him. As it turned out, the Scuderia's shocking performance provided the bullet, but whether he or the Italo-Canadian Marchionne pulled the trigger remains unclear. There is, though, no doubt as to whose 45 Special it was...

Such shenanigans precipitated turmoil in 2015's driver market, with Fernando Alonso shortly thereafter forsaking Ferrari in favour of a (supposed) Japanese sunrise, and Sebastian Vettel slotting into Maranello. Daniel Ricciardo, the only man other than Mercedes twins Lewis Hamilton (crowned champion, thankfully without those double points) and Nico Rosberg to win a race, was elevated to Red Bull Racing leader.

Neither Mattiacci or Montezemolo finished the year at Ferrari

However, the Australian's three victories did not dilute Red Bull's criticism of Renault and the engine formula. Team boss Christian Horner raged against Mercedes' (deserved) performance advantage from first race to last, at one stage even suggesting a farcical return to last decade's V8s. But he failed to gain the unanimity required for change despite Ecclestone's backing, with the octogenarian even pushing for a form of 'Super GP2'.

Expect more of the same next year: Silver hegemony and rant...

In many ways the (ironically loud) noise about the engines was a (odious and oily) smokescreen, for the real story of 2014 was money, or rather a distinct lack of the crucial commodity at the middle-to-blunt reaches of the grid and eye-watering excesses of the folding stuff when it came to settling bribery charges in Munich.

2014 marked the first year of F1's inequitable pay-outs which see the top three share riches out of all proportion with the rest - for example, double championship winner Mercedes is due an estimated £35m less for the year than fourth-placed Ferrari - and this factor, coupled with a continuing global crisis and doubling in power unit costs due to their complexity, put massive squeezes on more than half the grid.

Recognising this, FIA president Jean Todt in January committed to some form of cost control cap by season's end, but the power of the Strategy Group - albeit touted as a forum without executive authority - saw the governing body overruled by the 'Big Six' teams voting in conjunction with commercial rights holder FOM. The EU Commission beckons; deservedly so in many minds.

By the 17th race Caterham and Marussia were in administration and Sauber, Force India and Lotus in open revolt; two races later the wrangling reached fever pitch, overshadowing the sport's season finale. "How can it be that a sport generating £1.2bn annually cannot sustain 11 teams?" was the burning question in Abu Dhabi, rather than "Lewis or Nico for champion?"

F1 lost two teams almost at the same time © XPB

The endangered trio campaigned for an additional $100m split three ways, and if proof were needed that the 113-year commercial rights deal struck between FIA/FOM - a decade before Todt took office - is the root of most paddock evil, consider that the sum equals that proffered by Ecclestone to a Munich court in settlement of bribery charges not unrelated to the sale of the sports rights to investment fund CVC Capital Partners.

The case had Ecclestone shuttling to/from Germany for five months before settlement was reached, but the sport suffered under a cloud immediately when court dates were confirmed in January. During the full eight-month period F1 operated in an unwelcome leadership vacuum, one that persists five months after charges were dropped - culminating in an extraordinary admission from Ecclestone in Austin (below).

That the then-83-year-old shelled out $100m in settlement of the $40m case sent waves through the paddock, but not of shock - little surprises in these days of $12m weddings - but of horror at yet another thrashing the sport's image would endure.

As this column closed for publication business sources speculated that Ecclestone, the ultimate survivor, was facing his 'final pitstop' in the wake of a total board reshuffle at Delta Topco level, FOM's ultimate parent company. The word in the City is that CVC recognises that it needs to exit F1 either via a sell-out or a successful listing on Singapore's stock exchange - after two aborted attempts.

Current chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe is suffering health issues, and according to AUTOSPORT's sister publication Management Today the Swiss, who forged his reputation at Nestle, could be replaced by the tough British liquor executive Paul Walsh, a veteran of the hotel/hospitality and liquor industries.

However, observers believe there will be one major difference: Where the current incumbent is "merely" chairman, Walsh will be executive chairman, with all the powers that implies. Put differently, one insider is adamant "Walsh will be able to do what [CVC boss Donald[ Mackenzie and Brabeck don't have the guts to do".

Is Ecclestone about to lose his reign of F1? © XPB

If, as the sport's architect, Ecclestone accepts the bulk of credit for F1's success across the globe, then as de facto FOM CEO - he relinquished executive authority when the Munich charges were confirmed, and his full powers have yet to be reinstated - he must ultimately shoulder the bulk of blame for the series' floundering reputation and its deepening financial crisis.

The inequitable revenue structure was first exclusively revealed in detail by this writer almost two years ago , and it is now a matter of record that the payment schedule is totally flawed. Ecclestone's signature appears on the bilateral contracts between FOM and the teams individually, and as such that is where the buck should ultimately stop.

At Austin he acknowledged: "There is too much money probably being distributed badly - probably my fault," adding, "frankly, I know what's wrong, but don't know how to fix it..." This, like the questions of engines and the Strategy Group, will be a recurring theme. Add to that the persistent question of succession at the top.

As the year draws to a close the question of two teams in administration remains unresolved, although at the final Commission session of the year they pleaded for permission to run modified 2014 cars next year, failing which they would most certainly fold. Even this issue is politically charged, with some vowing permission had been granted, and others stating the matter was not an agenda item and thus not up for vote.

Indeed, the only resolutions passed during the two-hour meeting of 25 high-powered folk were reversals of the double points regulations and standing restarts after safety car phases - rules that should not have passed into the books in the first place - while cost control was merely lip-serviced.

Thus the scene was set for the final FIA World Motorsport Council session of the season - held in Doha, Qatar in the run up to the governing body's annual General Assembly meeting and the FIA Prize Giving evening, at which all major championship winners are honoured.

Remarkably the FIA selected a portfolio of event sponsors without F1 connections - save for Rolex, which is also a Le Mans/Daytona sponsor. According to sources Ecclestone did not pitch at the awards session, having departed after the WMSC meeting, where all motions before the council were ratified and rubber-stamped.

The FIA has failed to implement a plan to reduce costs © XPB

Cost control discussions were, though, carried over to the new year - leaving F1 exactly where it was 12 months ago - but one hears a Strategy Group summit has been scheduled for December 18, with a meeting between FOM and the three marginalised teams called for the previous day. Apparently the question of the Strategy Group's powers is on the agenda, as are cost issues.

Asked whether he was hopeful of speedy resolutions to the joint questions of F1's inequitable revenue structure and its discriminatory governance procedures, a team boss of one of the disenfranchised teams stated devoid of emotion: "If I had held my breath after our first cost control meeting I would have been dead for 12 months now."

Incidentally, the Christmas run-up will be a busy period for F1: on December 16 the newly-formed Promotion Working Group meets in some style at Heathrow's Sofitel Hotel for its second sitting.

As for the engines, the non-Mercedes runners are seeking loopholes through interpretation of the engine regulations, which seem to be about as clear as mud.

Look no further for a perfect summary of 2014's political season...