FOTA breakaway from FIA
Friday 19th June 2009The long running dispute between Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) and the FIA, and its President Max Mosley, has reached new heights on the eve of the 2009 British Grand Prix at Silverstone, with eight teams, including Championship leaders Brawn GP, as well as Red Bull Racing, Toro Rosso, Ferrari, McLaren, Renault, Toyota and BMW Sauber, announcing this morning that they will launch a rival breakaway championship for the forthcoming season.
Is this simply the further posturing at the top end of motorsport or will the FOTA teams actually form their own Championship to rival F1 in 2010?
It is well known that there have, for some time, been deep-rooted differences of opinion between FOTA members and the FIA's Mosley regarding the future path of F1. It is a distinct possibility, therefore, that FOTA are holding out for confirmation that Mosley will not seek re-election as President of the FIA once his current term expires in October of this year. Mosley's future could be confirmed as early as next week as a World Motor Sport Council meeting is due to take place next Wednesday.
Mosley has appeared intent on bringing an end to what he perceives to be a financial arms race in Formula One, with costs escalating in the face of a world-wide economic crisis and was insistent on introducing a voluntary £40,000,000 budget cap for the teams for the 2010 season. However, FOTA themselves have argued that the support and assistance that they have provided to independent teams and other large costs reductions that have been agreed already, provide a basis for a sustainable way forward for the sport.
If FOTA do form a breakaway championship then this will follow in the footsteps of the Champ Car and Indy Racing League split that took place in 1996, which proved to be very damaging financially and in terms of support for both championships and American single seater open wheel racing as a whole. The two rival championships eventually merged again in 2008. Away from motorsport, a similar damaging split took place in Rugby League between Rupert Murdoch's Super League and ARL in 1997.
As Williams would be the only Championship winning team involved in the 2010 F1 Championship, and with the might of Mercedes, Ferrari, BMW and Toyota combined with Red Bull's marketing machine and the guaranteed involvement of most of the world's leading drivers behind it, a breakaway championship, on paper at least, has every chance of being a success.
It is not, however, that simple as the FIA are claiming that Ferrari, Red Bull and Torro Rosso are committed to F1 until 2012, which all of these teams vehemently deny. This will no doubt lead to a legal challenge over the coming days.
Also, Bernie Ecclestone owns the TV rights to F1 and has lucrative agreements already in place with broadcasters and many of the circuits that the breakaway championship would want to use.
Ecclestone's role over the coming days will surely be pivotal given his hold on the sport's commercial rights and position as the grandfather of F1. He is, a long time friend of Mosley, and has been typically non-committal so far, save to confirm that he believes F1 would survive whatever happened. Equally he has strong links with team principals such as Flavio Briatore, with whom he is a co-investor in QPR Football Club. Despite Bernie Ecclestone's reluctance to act as mediator to date, it is difficult to imagine him not becoming involved over the coming weeks, especially as F1 will surely lose its credibility and attraction to both motorsport fans and sponsors without the involvement of the FOTA 8 and their drivers.
It is, in short, far from a done deal even though the FIA's deadline for teams to confirm their unconditional involvement in F1 in 2010 expires today, 19 June 2009. There will no doubt be yet more twists and turns before matters are resolved and legal teams will no doubt take up arms against each other in earnest before very long. It remains to be seen whether the likes of Ferrari and McLaren will be racing against F1 new boys Campos, US F1 and Manor in 2010.
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