Mosley Tells FOTA Teams to Form Their Own Championship

The Formula 1 2010 budget cap row continues to rumble on before this weekend's Turkish Grand Prix.

As reported previously in this blog nine of the ten FOTA member teams submitted conditional applications for the 2010 FIA Formula 1 World Championship by the 29th May deadline.

Williams broke ranks from the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) and submitted a full entry to the Championship in line with their commercial and contractural obligations. They were later suspended from membership of FOTA.

Subsequently, Force India have also submitted a full entry and face suspension, like Williams, from FOTA.

Following the announcement of the proposed budget cap from 2010 onwards, many new entrants have been persuaded to submit entry applications and as the total number of teams that can enter is limited to thirteen (26 cars), places on the grid are not guaranteed for all of the current established F1 participants.

Perhaps emboldened by the level of new applicants to the sport, Mosley has effectively told the eight FOTA teams lead by Ferrari that have submitted only conditional entries for 2010 to put up or shut up.

Mosley has stated that if they are not happy with the rules set by the FIA they should consider running their own Championship and then they are free to do what they like.

This is certainly a high stakes game for all concerned.

Should the likes of Ferrari and McLaren do as is suggested by Mosley and go their own way Ecclestone will find himself in hot water with the television networks and advertisers.

On the other hand, some of the FOTA teams could find themselves in court for breach of contract. It is said that Ferrari could be sued for as much as £ 500 million.

The FOTA teams would also have enormous expenditure to get a breakaway series up and running.

Ecclestone has exclusivity arrangements with all the circuits currently used by F1 and numerous major television deals. The FOTA teams would have to negotiate venues and television coverage from scratch.

Some of the teams (Toyota ? Renault ?) may use these shenanigans as a convenient excuse to bow out completely in view of the losses they are currently incurring in their production car business.

Hopefully everyone will see sense at some point before too much irreversible damage is done.

F1 Budget Cap Latest - Williams Confirm 2010 Entry

FOTA, (The Formula 1 Teams Association) has upped the ante in their dispute with the FIA by again calling for the proposed 2010 £40m budget cap to be revoked as a pre-condition of their continuing to participate in the Championship.

Following several meetings at the Monaco Grand Prix last weekend, FIA president Max Mosley indicated that agreement on a budget cap was close, although he did admit that it may not come into effect until 2011.

The view of FOTA is that they are best placed to decide on and implement any necessary cost cutting exercises rather than having them forced upon them by the FIA.

The deadline for entries to the 2010 season is on Friday (29th May). Whilst all the teams are keen to maintain a united front in talks with Mosley, Williams F1 lodged their application for 2010 on Monday (25th May).
Williams stressed that it felt duty-bound to honour undertakings it had given to compete in F1 through to the end of 2010 but had no intention of leaving FOTA.

Mosley has initmated that the FIA may be willing to compromise over the implementation of the budget cap by treating 2010 as a transitional year with changes gradually fased in before coming into full effect in 2011.

It remains to be seen whether an agreement will be reached before the Friday deadline.

Now Renault & Red Bull Threaten to Quit F1 - Crisis Talks in London Tomorrow

Following the recent announcements from Toyota and Ferrari, Renault and Red Bull Racing have also now threatened to pull out of Formula 1 if radical changes are not made to the proposed 2010 budget cap.

In an effort to resolve the dispute, Formula 1 teams are due to meet Max Mosley and Bernie Ecclestone at a London hotel on Friday.

FIA boss Mosley, has attempted to railroad through a "voluntary" budget cap of £40m for the 2010 season. Teams opting for the budget cap would be allowed greater technical freedom than those operating outside the arrangement.

Whilst it is clearly imperative that the untenable levels of spending in Formula 1 are reigned in, at the same time it is absolutely non sensical to have cars from different teams operating under different technical regulations.

Teams wishing to enter the 2010 season have until the 29th May to submit their applicationsd.

With barely two weeks to go to this deadline the teams and the FIA are playing a high stakes poker game - as usual with scant regard to ordinary F1 fans.

Clearly with half the grid threatening to pull out of the 2010 season some form of compromise solution will have to be hammered out over the next few weeks and months.

Ferrari threaten to quit F1 in 2010

Following the recent announcement of Max Mosley's proposed 2010 Formula 1 budget cap, Ferrari have today threatened to quit the sport if it is not rescinded.

This is clearly an idle threat.

The plain fact is, Ferrari needs Formula 1 and Formula 1 needs Ferrari.

Love them or hate them, Ferrari is an essential element of any Formula 1 season.

Ferrari may, as has been mooted in the past, try to set up or join a rival manufacturers championship. However, in the current financial climate do they really think this could be achiveable bearing in mind the costs involved in setting up a new championship from scratch?

On a practical note, Ecclestone has exclusive deals with all the circuits currently used for Formula 1 grand prix races so finding suitable venues (apart from tracks owned by Ferrari) would be difficult.

Do they think the public would really be interested in watching a race series with a handfull of different cars on the grid?

Mosley and Co would be cutting off their noses to spite their faces too if Ferrari were to pull out after more than half a century. Television audiences would plummet and ergo advertising revenues.

As is usual in Formula 1 nowadays the last people to be considered by either the F1 teams or the sport's governing body are the fans who ultimately pay their inflated wages!

FIA Boss Max Mosley's Son Alexander Found Dead

Alexander Mosley, the son of FIA boss Max Mosley has been found dead at his home in Notting Hill, London earlier today after a suspected drug overdose.

Metropolitan Police detectives are currently investigating whether the 39 year old restaurateur's death was an accident or suicide.

It is suggested that Alexander may have been a recreational drugs user.