Does Marchionne's Alfa IndyCar Announcement Hint at a Ferrari move?

At this year’s North American International Auto Show in Detroit, CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Sergio Marchionne has presented the option for Alfa Romeo to potentially run a car in the Verizon IndyCar Series and is quoted as saying, “Why not Alfa Romeo in IndyCar? We are thinking about it.” The presence of Alfa Romeo on the full time IndyCar grid would mark the first time that the FCA group has a presence in the American racing series. The news also comes not long after Alfa Romeo announced their return to Formula 1 with Sauber after more than 30 years of absence from the sport.

While some American fans may be pleased to see a world famous marque such as Alfa Romeo join the IndyCar Series, the announcement does beg the question of why Marchionne has chose to make this potential intnet known at this precise time. While we fans have not seen Alfa Romeo in particular ever make a move towards the premier open wheel competition of the United States, FCA owned Ferrari has.

In 1986 with Enzo Ferrari in reaching the final stages of his life, il Commendatore of the motorsport empire of his own creation revealed the Ferrari Type 637 designed by Austrian engineer Gustav Brunner to comply with the regulations of not Formula 1, but CART (Now IndyCar). The announcement of the CART designed Ferrari came during a period of intense negotiation between Enzo Ferrari and the primary chief of F1 Bernie Ecclestone. In the 80’s a move from V12 engines to naturally aspirated V8’s alongside turbocharged V6 and inline 4 engines had the Italian furious with the direction of the sport.

In light of engine regulation changes alongside other changes to the F1 Concorde Agreement, Ferrari reached out to the successful Truesports IndyCar team who sent one of their March-Cosworth cars to Italy for inspection. Following the Ferrari team’s examination of the car, Truesports also flew out Bobby Rahal to run the car at Ferrari’s test track Fiorano. After an attempt to have Adrian Newey, who was experiencing some success in IndyCar himself, design the Ferrari challenger, Enzo tapped Brunner to design the car. After the car’s initial release, Michele Alboreto tested the Type 637 at Fiorano at Fiorano where it stacked up relatively well to the March that Truesports had supplied them.

With the reveal of the IndyCar design came a statement from Ferrari saying, “The news concerning the possibility of Ferrari abandoning Formula One to race in the United States has a basis in fact… For some time at Ferrari there has been study of a program of participation at Indianapolis and in the CART championship. In the event that in Formula One the sporting and technical rules of the Concorde Agreement are not sufficiently guaranteed for three years the Ferrari team (in agreement with its suppliers and in support of its presence in the US) will put this program into effect.”

Ultimately, however, Enzo’s CART announcement was merely the Italian’s method of applying even more pressure upon the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone to bend to the will of Ferrari’s regulation wishes. In the end the FIA accepted Enzo’s thinly veiled ultimatum which allowed the Ferraris of the 1989 Formula 1 season to compete with Enzo’s beloved V12 engines. Unfortunately the man who had negotiated so hard with the FIA to make this possible, Ferrari himself, never had the opportunity to see the V12 powered Ferrari of NIgel Mansell win on debut in 1989 as he passed away at age 90 on August 14, 1988.

While the days of the FIA bending to the will of Ferrari have come to a end to an extent, the Maranello based team still holds significant sway within the behind the scenes politics of the sport and with recent threats from Marchionne himself saying that Ferrari will pull out of Formula 1 if the regulations are not to the company’s satisfaction, an interesting connection can be drawn from Marchionne to the founder of Ferrari. When Alfa Romeo, as a subsidiary of the FCA, came into Formula 1 it was made clear that their contract with Sauber and the FIA expired at much the same time as Ferrari’s own current contract does thus placing a potential withdrawal date of both organizations somewhere around 2020.

With Alfa Romeo conducting research into the possibility of a full blown IndyCar program, one does wonder if this is perhaps Marchionne’s attempt to place pressure upon the FIA and Liberty Media much as Enzo Ferrari himself did in the 80’s. In his threats for Ferrari to quit Formula 1, the FCA CEO has said on several occasions that Ferrari intends to do what is best for the company and that said company has the ability to potentially start it’s own championship. Perhaps, though, the company intends to threaten Formula 1 and its new owners with an even bigger hit though by making motions toward a move to IndyCar.

With Fernando Alonso’s running at the 2017 Indianapolis 500, viewership numbers from the Spaniards home country showed an average of 433,000 viewers watching the Indy 500 as opposed to the Monaco Grand Prix where the live viewership was only 212,000 from the same country. The numbers reported indicate an incredibly significant shift in viewership with the presence of Alonso racing the US despite there usually being a larger Spanish draw toward European races. Take into consideration, then, the Tifosi of Monza. If Ferrari were to part ways from Formula 1 and move across the pond to IndyCar, there is a very good chance that a large number of their Italian fanbase would begin watching the US based series more.

With Liberty Media having only very recently acquired the sport’s promotion rights, a mass exodus of Italian fans from the grandstands could be disastrous. In addition to losing the the fans in the seats and on their televisions, a Ferrari move could also jeopardize the presence on Monza on the F1 calender at all. Dropping the classic Italian circuit from the calendar is something that Bernie Ecclestone made note of to the public on several occasions when engaging in negotiations with the circuit’s owners regarding contract extension. If Ferrari leaves F1 to compete IndyCar, there is every chance that the Italian Grand Prix at Monza would cease to happen due to the circuit being unable to cover the fees that the FIA requires all tracks to pay in order to host a round of the Formula 1 championship. General attendance at Grand Prix has been declining in the past years across the entire calendar, resulting in lower profits for the tracks themselves which in turn drive up ticket prices that many fans already believe are too high. The Tifosi no longer attending the Italian Grand Prix would only place increasing strain upon the circuit’s ability to continue hosting the historic race.

On the face of things Sergio Marchionne’s statements regarding an Alfa Romeo presence in IndyCar are promising for the US series, but it is entirely possible that Marchionne is taking a leaf out of Enzo’s book and ramping up for even more behind the scenes negotiations with the FIA regarding engine regulations going forward while applying additional pressure with a potential Alfa Romeo IndyCar program.

Hat Tip: Motorsport.com