Biggest con-artist ever in F1?

[ben_watkins]

Madmax +1

[seinfeld]

yeah Bernie somehow he gets countries to pay him to bring F1 to the country. usually a big event its 60% to the commercial rights, and 40% to the country that would be fair but now its almost 80% to bernie, and countries post a loss every year, yet because fans love it they let it happen and again with the timezone bull crap, Australia Malaysia are all late arvo races, just so Europe gets to watch it at a decent hour thats stupidity, and Malaysia almost floods ever afternoon from downpours cause its late, no races not services, and big money is saved because race ends early. Bernie is the best con man of all time

[xpensive]

I heard a legend about Enzo Ferrari on the ropes in the mid 50s, but saved himself by weasling into the Lancia team?

Anyone got a background on this?

[andrew]

I would say all the teams bosses. Each race weekend they promise exciting racing and get us all watching and lo-and-behold - moreoften than not it's a borefest!!!!

[jon-mullen]

I read a book about a drug-smuggling ring that was so wildly successful that they had problems getting cash back from America to their leaders and suppliers around the world. So allegedly what they did was stuff the body of an empty F1 car full of cash and enter it in the Monaco GP so the customs inspectors wouldn't look too closely at it. Then on Thursday they'd say the car was damaged and quietly withdraw it. Open quali really attracts the best and the brightest, no?

[Chaparral]

When MrM had started his March team in 1970, he offered Chris Amon a staggering 100 000 GBP to leave Ferrari.
This was an unheard of amount at the time, why he never bothered to pay, at least not in full, why Amon left for 1971.

But remarkably, for 1973 when Ronnie Peterson was leaving for Lotus, he somehow managed to sign Chris Amon again,only this time he didn't even bother to give him the drive as he later found a couple of pay-drivers.

As Amon put it "my deal with March was that Mosely would pay me 100,00 GBP in four quarterly instalments. I got the first 25,000 but he still owes me 75,000. Big money then not small money now. We had a legal meeting and he gave me this stuff about how I had stand back so the March lads could keep their jobs. I guess I was too soft" Mosely would be only one of a string of many gringoes in F1 - Tom Walkinshaw bled the Arrows team dry by syphoning all the sponsorship dollars into his own bank a/c to effectively kill off Arrows and set up TWR

[Gary]

I heard a legend about Enzo Ferrari on the ropes in the mid 50s, but saved himself by weasling into the Lancia team?

Anyone got a background on this?

Yup, a little for now. I'm at work right now so this is off the top of the head.

In 1954 The Scuderia was not a pretty sight. Their F1 car, the 533 Squalo (shark), epitomised the Old Man's unwavering belief that engine power was the thing to have and the chassis, the handling, was very secondary. These cars were not good, not good at all. They weren't even particularly powerful if I recall correctly. The misery drifted on into 1955, exacerbated by the continuing dominance of the W196 Mercedes, now with Moss as well as Fangio steering it. The 250F Maserati was better than Ferrari's 555 Supersqualo (albeit with not quite top drawer drivers, Moss having gone to Mercedes) but now there was another huge threat from just down the road, the Lancia D50, with Alberto Ascari its lead driver. This was a ground breaking car in many ways, cited by some observers as potentially faster than the W196 Merc.

But, tragically for Lancia, their hopes were destroyed with poor Ascari's death testing a sports car at Monza weeks after his infamous excursion into the harbour at Monte Carlo. Aside from the human tragedy, this was an economic disaster for Lancia. They already had major financial problems, and soon became quite unviable as a force.

Never backward in coming forward, Enzo Ferrari approached Gianni Agnelli, the FIAT chairman and pleaded for his assistance in getting the Lancia operation transplanted into Modena. Agnelli bought the proposition and duly bought Scuderia Lancia, gifting the whole thing, cars, parts, machine tools, engineers, designers to Ferrari.

Ferrari won the 1956 World Championship with Fangio driving. The car was a Lancia D50 with Ferrari badges. Fangio left Ferrari at the end of a single season.

[czt]

I read a book about a drug-smuggling ring that was so wildly successful that they had problems getting cash back from America to their leaders and suppliers around the world. So allegedly what they did was stuff the body of an empty F1 car full of cash and enter it in the Monaco GP so the customs inspectors wouldn't look too closely at it. Then on Thursday they'd say the car was damaged and quietly withdraw it. Open quali really attracts the best and the brightest, no?

I think I'm just reading the same book - Reefer Men

The car was apparently to be entered into the Macau GP under the team name "Fast Lane Express", and was fitted with only a go-kart engine to leave space for the cash which had to get to Hong Kong to be laundered.

[jon-mullen]

Yeah, that's the one! Was it the Macau GP?, my mistake, I lent it out and never got it back. Who knew that having so much cash would be such a big problem? A problem I wouldn't mind having, but a problem all the same.