Arrivabene tries to provoke Ecclestone

Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene says he took to the grandstands with team members during testing in order to try and provoke Bernie Ecclestone.

Arrivabene was pictured alongside Esteban Gutierrez and sporting director Massimo Rivola in the main grandstand during Saturday’s running, mixing with fans at the Circuit de Catalunya. Following the unusual scene, Arrivabene admits the motivation behind the move came from his understanding that Formula One Management is likely to reduce the number of passes available to allow people in to the paddock.

“Now I give you a big [headline],” Arrivabene said. “I heard that in Australia there will be more restrictions in terms of passes and I think this is not acceptable. So I said to the guys ‘OK, if we are going to have a situation where the paddock is going to be empty, it’s better if we start training to go to the people and we sit in the grandstands’.

“I have to say it was a good experience because the people were very well-educated, we were with our headphones following the test. They were respectful, asking for pictures and we took pictures. It was a good experience and I hope to have other experiences like this.

“At one stage the thing that was very funny was that the people, when we went back, we met the people running out of the paddock to go to the grandstand.

“But I think if we want to keep the exclusivity of this sport, exclusivity doesn’t mean having an empty paddock. This is my clear statement. I was using the example of golf last time. I don’t play golf but I watch it on television sometimes and it’s one of the most exclusive sports. But when they play, you have thousands of people following the players. And this is not working against exclusivity of the sport.

“It was a kind of provocation but I love to do this kind of provocation. I said we need to take Formula One close to the people. We were sitting in the middle of the people. And I don’t like to see now and in the future the paddock empty, it’s not the right way.”

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