Marchionne's Ferrari quit threat softens

Sergio Marchionne has suggested that Ferrari's stance over quitting Formula 1 may be softening as Liberty Media continues to reveal elements of the vision for the future of the sport. Proposed budget caps and changes to engine regulations had previously prompted Marchionne to suggest the Scuderia could quit F1.

Liberty has confirmed that the expensive and complicated MGU-H energy recovery systems will be ditched for 2019, with budget caps of $150million also set to be introduced.

Mercees team boss Toto Wolff says the figure is too low for engine suppliers such as the Silver Arrows, with Ferrari also supplying power units to Sauber.

Aston Martin and Porsche have suggested that the new engine rules could lead them into F1, but Marchionne remains against a standardised ruleset.

"The biggest sign is the recognition that engine regulations need to reflect the nature of the sport," he said.

Read more: Aston Martin eye F1 future
Read more: Wolff slams Liberty budget cap

"We can't really dumb down engine development just to accommodate new entries, right?"

Marchionne echoed Wolff's claims that the financial proposals do not align with their wishes - Ferrari would also be set to lose out on tens of millions in legacy payments in a shake-up of revenue sharing.

"The stuff that's on the table now is potentially workable as a system. The economics are not. That's something we need to go back to Liberty with," he said.

"I think we now have enough of a basis to try start having meaningful discussions. And hopefully, we'll get it all resolved by the end of this year one way or the other.

"The important thing for us... is that we don't touch the nature of the technical development of the power-trains because that is at the heart of what Ferrari does for a living.

"We need to continue to work with Liberty with the commercial rights holders and with the [governing] FIA to try and bring about a sensible equilibrium. If we can't, as I said before, we'll just pull out.

"But we're not there today. We owe the sport a phenomenal effort to try and bring about closure of these items. We'll try and get that done before the end of this year."