The right people working for the right media outlet could always reach Bernie Ecclestone. There were times when he would do the reaching out. Few in the business of sporting administration had a better intuitive understanding of how to play the media game than Formula One's Mr E.
Ordinarily the interaction would be a low key, one-on-one affair, selectively driving whatever message home. The difference this time was the industrial nature of the operation, the full bundle of targeted Formula One reporters invited to his old Knightsbridge lair.
The subsequent headlines betrayed the rationale behind the meeting: 'Ferrari in F1 quit threat'. I smiled. If I had a pound for every word published in pursuit of this tale over the past 20 years, I wouldn’t be writing this. I’d be sunning it in my Cayman Islands retreat, raising a glass to the greatest marque in Formula One, and the sporting impresario pulling the strings on their behalf.
What a caper, hysteria on a grand scale whipped up at a critical moment in the negotiating cycle of a commercial agreement coming under renewal. Ecclestone is right, Ferrari is Formula One is Ferrari. The rest can come and go. The only colour in the global pit lane is red. It doesn’t matter where in the world you go, one team alone commands loyal attachment.
There are Williams diehards out there, there are McLaren love-ins but despite the contributions these giants of the sport have made, they remain specs in the grandstands from Monaco to Melbourne, Montreal to Mexico compared with the emotional pull of the Scuderia.
