FOTA announces breakaway series !!!

[Scaff]

And once more the FIA appear to be doing all it can to screw things up.

The Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA) has accused the FIA of putting the future of the sport in jeopardy after talks to sort out rules collapsed on Wednesday.

At the end of a dramatic day at the Nurburgring, which resulted in FOTA members walking out of an FIA meeting after they were told they could have no input on regulatory discussions, the teams' organisation has gone on the attack against the governing body.

It is angry that, as AUTOSPORT revealed on Tuesday, the FIA believes the FOTA teams do not have full entries to next year's championship so cannot vote on rules.

The teams were officially informed of their 'observer' status on Wednesday, prompting frustration that left the teams with no choice but to leave the meeting.

A statement from FOTA said: "Representatives of all FOTA teams attended a meeting of the Sporting Working Group at the Nurburgring today.

"During the course of this meeting, the team managers were informed by Mr Charlie Whiting of the FIA that, contrary to previous agreements, the eight FOTA teams are not currently entered into the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship and have no voting rights in relation to the technical and sporting regulations thereof.

"It will be remembered that all eight active FOTA members were included on the "accepted" entry list as endorsed by the FIA World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) and communicated by FIA press statement on June 24.

"In light of these claims, the FOTA representatives requested a postponement of today's meetings. This was rejected on the grounds that no new Concorde Agreement would be permitted before a unanimous approval of the 2010 regulations was achieved."

The statement added: "It is clear to the FOTA teams that the basis of the 2010 technical and sporting regulations was already established in Paris.

"As endorsed by the WMSC and clearly stated in the FIA press statement of 24 June "the rules for 2010 onwards will be the 2009 regulations as well as further regulations agreed prior to 29 April 2009.

"At no point in the Paris discussions was any requirement for unanimous agreement on regulations change expressed. To subsequently go against the will of the WMSC and the detail of the Paris agreement puts the future of Formula 1 in jeopardy.

"As a result of these statements, the FOTA representatives at the subsequent Technical Working Group were not able to exercise their rights and therefore had no option other than to terminate their participation."

The standoff between FOTA and the FIA is in stark contrast to the cooperation pact that appeared to have been struck last month prior to the most recent FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting.

There, FIA president Max Mosley, FOTA chairman Luca di Montezemolo and Bernie Ecclestone agreed a deal that headed off the threat of a breakaway.

Since then, however, Mosley has reconsidered his decision to step down from his role in October because of what he believes were misleading claims made by FOTA to the media.

Today's breakdown in talks leaves the future path for the sport unclear, with the prospect of a breakaway now re-emerging.

Sources suggest that F1 owners CVC are furious with the latest development, which has cast a cloud over the future of the sport just a few weeks after peace had broken out.

FOTA is adamant that the collapse in the discussions can be pinned firmly on the FIA.

Its statement said: "The FOTA members undertook the Paris agreement and the subsequent discussions in good faith and with a desire to engage with all new and existing teams on the future of Formula One."

Source - http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/76778

All I can say is that it appears the FIA actually want a breakaway series, as they seem to be doing all they can to undo what was agreed last month.


Regards

Scaff

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

I knew FOTA should have pulled the trigger.

 

[Hun200kmh]

So, the 8 FOTA teams don't have full entries to the 2010 championship? They can't vote in the discussion for the 2010 regulations? Who can? Manor, Campos, USF1, Williams and Force India?

This is nothing short of insane! If I were FOTA I would issue an ultimatum and ask for Mr. Mosley's resignation within 48 hours. Or else, start preparing the breakaway championship, with no "going-back" now.

If the FIA took its time to get rid of Mosley, then the FIA could ask to become the regulatory body of the breakaway series.

What a joke .....


EDIT: There's one strange part in that FOTA press release. This:

"During the course of this meeting, the team managers were informed by Mr Charlie Whiting of the FIA that, contrary to previous agreements, the eight FOTA teams are not currently entered into the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship and have no voting rights in relation to the technical and sporting regulations thereof.

This directly contradicts the "entry list" published by the FIA last June 12th:

http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre/pressreleases/f1releases/2009/Pages/f1_2010_entrants.aspx

Because from the 8 FOTA Teams, the FIA only considered as "conditional" 5 of them.



But it gets worse, because, after all (and as FOTA points out), that list was ammended by the WMSC. Here:

http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre/pressreleases/wmsc/2009/Pages/wmsc_240609.aspx

Max has gone nuts ... well he was nuts already, but I guess he got even worse lately.

 

[SUPER NUMBBER]

They were only trying to buy time to impede a new breakaway series....I kinda had a feeling in the back of my head saying they would do this, but I kinda wished it away.

FOTA, nothing short of Mosley's immediate resignation will suffice. Pull out and start a new championship while you still can...

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Pull out and start a new championship while you still can...

It's far too late for that. The FIA may claim FOTA do not have full entries and thus have no say in the setting of the rules, but you can bet that if they try and go rogue again, the FIA will throw the book at them saying they have at least a partial entry, and thus forcing the teams into a legal battle that will only slow down the proceedings and give FOTA less time to go their own way. Unable to form their own championship, FOTA will be forced to leave entirely or fold and join under the FIA's conditions.

 

[SUPER NUMBBER]

I'm actually more afraid of the wording used in the (written?) agreement to commit until 2012. If they protected themselves well enough on that front, they can't be forced to compete with a partial only entry.

Otherwise, this is only gonna get seriously ugly. Can you imagine FOTA being forced to participate, only to field 16 black cars running in a procession at minimum speed, with the possibility of empty grandstands at the same time?

 

[NapoleonMikey]

It's far too late for that. The FIA may claim FOTA do not have full entries and thus have no say in the setting of the rules, but you can bet that if they try and go rogue again, the FIA will throw the book at them saying they have at least a partial entry, and thus forcing the teams into a legal battle that will only slow down the proceedings and give FOTA less time to go their own way. Unable to form their own championship, FOTA will be forced to leave entirely or fold and join under the FIA's conditions.

when you have millions of dollars at your disposal im sure they could hire enough lawyers to deal with the legal side and not slow down the break away series. if theres enough motivation to do something im sure they can and will find a way even if the break away series starts later in the year or starts in 2011. it all depends on how bad they want to do this.

 

[Peter]

What the hell is Mosley's problem? What's his goal? To ruin the greatest motorsport in the world? Why is he so determined to make everything wrong however he can?

 

[prisonermonkeys]

when you have millions of dollars at your disposal im sure they could hire enough lawyers to deal with the legal side and not slow down the break away series.

I'm not legal mind, but I do know that an issue as complex and deeply-rooted as this will take time to sort out. It's not a case of throwing as much money as possible at it and then hoping it will go away.

What the hell is Mosley's problem? What's his goal? To ruin the greatest motorsport in the world? Why is he so determined to make everything wrong however he can?

His objective is as it has always been: to assert his power over the sport, to direct it towards a future he believes to be the only way forward. If I had to hazard a guess, he's trying to destablise thing just enough so that when elections come around in October, he can come through and save the day somehow and get himself re-elected. He'd have to know that he's losing support every day; by creating a crisis of his own and then solving it, he's hoping to sway enough of the voters in the elections. Because until the other day, there was nothing to indicate anybody who might be interested in the job. Then Ari Vatanen - a former World Champion and a man who spent ten years inside the EU parliament - put his hand up for the job. I don't think Mosley is so much afraid of Vatanen as he is of the fact that someone has dared to fight back. Vatanen's presence means that someone is willing to compete with him; it's not just a vague threat to be dealt with in the future, but something that is now very real.

 

[Hun200kmh]

It's far too late for that. The FIA may claim FOTA do not have full entries and thus have no say in the setting of the rules

No, the FIA cannot claim that:


The World Motor Sport Council met in Paris on 24 June 2009. The following decisions were taken:
....

The following teams have been accepted for the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship.


TEAM

SCUDERIA FERRARI MARLBORO
VODAFONE McLAREN MERCEDES
BMW SAUBER F1 TEAM
RENAULT F1 TEAM
PANASONIC TOYOTA RACING
SCUDERIA TORO ROSSO
RED BULL RACING
AT&T WILLIAMS
FORCE INDIA F1 TEAM
BRAWN GP FORMULA ONE TEAM
CAMPOS META TEAM
MANOR GRAND PRIX
TEAM US F1


I think Mosley is so blinded by hate he already forgot what happened two weeks ago.

So, he will be lectured again, probably by CVC lawyers, that will attend the german GP as they attended the british GP. Where does the true POWER lie in all this? With FOTA. Without them, there will be no F1 championship.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

No, the FIA cannot claim that

I don't think it's Max's intention to cut the FOTA teams out completely, but to try and provoke them into doing someting stupid. It's obvious he's not happy with the terms of the deal negotiated at Silverstone, and he's trying to cut a better deal. But he can't break ranks first; after all, he had to accuse FOTA of calling him names before he could say "I've changed my mind and I'm re-running for President". He's trying to coax FOTA into going their own way again, then coming through in a clinch, but with a better deal for himself. He wants FOTA to recognise that the FIA are the authority, not them. In a way, they already do: they accept that the FIA are the ones in control. But they rise up like an oppressed mass to voice their discontent with the way the government is doing its job. It happened in Romania, it happened in Iran, it's a yearly occurance in Fiji and it's finally happening here.

I'm just curious - and I hope I'm not jinxing everything here - as to what Mosley would do if this were his final term in office under the no-more-than-two-terms ruling. After all, it was introduced duirng his reign, so he obviously played some part in it ...

 

[SUPER NUMBBER]

Max is evil, but not stupid. He won't play the same game of bait that got him burned at this stage.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

He may not have a choice. FOTA are talking directly with CVC and believe they can negotiate a new Concorde Agreement around the Hungarian Grand Prix, as well as signing a legally-binding document to reduce costs. If they get both of those, they'll have a lost of weight to throw around and the FIA can either join them or let them walk away with everything they need to form a breakaway series. And even if Mosley digs his heels in and screams blue murder, Vatanen or whoever succeeds him could rejoin FOTA at any time; Ecclestone doesn't think Mosley will be in the Presidency come 2010, and given his influence - and the influence of CVC - Mosley may well fade away quietly.

 

[Northstar]

So, not surprisingly there are talks of doing this once again, perhaps even less surprising it's Ferrari making the statement.

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo on Friday again raised the possibility of a breakaway Formula One series from 2013 as the team's parent company considers taking over the sport with News Corp.

Private equity firm CVC Capital Partners, which has owned the rights to F1 since 2006, has already been approached by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. and Ferrari investor Exor.

But the Concorde Agreement — the contract between F1's commercial rights holder, governing body FIA and the participating teams that sets out the basis on which the teams participate in the F1 championship and share in its commercial success — expires at the end of the 2012 season.

"At the end of 2012 the contract will expire, so theoretically CVC doesn't own anything," Di Montezemolo told CNN.

The teams could choose to go it alone, reviving a threat made in 2009 during their dispute with then-FIA president Max Mosley in a row about cost-cutting measures.

"We have three alternatives," Di Montezemolo said. "We renew with CVC, or we theoretically, as the basketball teams did in the US with great success, we create our own company like the NBA to run the races, the TV rights and so (on), and third, we find a different partner."

Exor, the holding company of the Agnelli family, has a controlling 30 percent stake in global automaker Fiat Group — the majority owner of sports car manufacturer Ferrari, which has competed in every F1 championship since it was launched in 1950.

News Corp.'s U.S. media outlets include FOX, and the British government has approved its plans to buy the 61 percent of satellite broadcaster BSkyB it does not already own.

Link

So is this just going to be one of those things that pops up every time the Concorde Agreement is set to expire and in the end leads to nothing?

Can't wait for Ferrari's empty threats to leave the sport... again.

 

[Tornado]

I wouldn't be surprised.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

So, not surprisingly there are talks of doing this once again, perhaps even less surprising it's Ferrari making the statement.

Is it just me, or has the departure of Max Mosley shown just how unhinged Luca di Montezemolo really is? He's pushed for three-car teams, he's pushed for the 107% rule being introduced overnight, he's pushed for changes to the engine regulations (speciically the number of teams a manufacturer can supply) and half a dozen other changes that he pitches as being "for the good of the sport", but all of which just so happen to favour Ferrari more than anyone else. The man has Flav Syndrome - when his team is winning races, the sport is at its best, but as soon as they stop winning, the sport is in dire straights. I mean, if you read the interview he did with Autosport about this, he clearly says that all of the action this year has been in the pits. Sure, there have been more pit stops, but that just means that drivers can't run a series of glorified time trials to try and cover off the next driver in sequence to get out in front of them. And ironically, Ferrari were the last team to do just this in such a way that they could get their driver out in front of someone else.

I wouldn't listen to anything Luca says. All he's trying to do is get some more political power for Ferrari.

 

[F1 fan]

Well said. It's getting tiring listening to Di Montezemelo.

 

[SaberFire]

It's just a shame that if anything, at least the Flav was somewhat charismatic.

Luca is just plain irritating; he's almost the Italian counterpart to Donald Trump, really. Ish.

 

[Hun200kmh]

I find you guys funny. The Concorde agreement is about to expire, what's someone like di Montezemolo supposed to say? YES, we will sign a new one with CVC, we won't consider anything else?

He (or any other team owner) would be plain STUPID if he did that. Teams need to make the best deal possible, and last time I checked they were trying to squeeze more money from Eccelestone.

Oh and three things must be considered:

- di Montezemolo isn't a nice guy, but he doesn't need to be a nice guy, in fact it is better for him and the interests he represents if he isn't seen as a nice guy.

- The Flav will never be an equal to Montezemolo. Comparing their charisma (whatever that may be) is futile. Luca is, in every way you can think of, many levels above the Flav. As he was above (and out of reach) of Mr. Mosley himself, no matter how hard he tried to take Luca down before he himself went down. Think of it whatever you want, di Montezemolo is like royalty here and everyone else is either a passing by politician or indeed a more or less successful civil servant.

- Donald Trump vs. the Flav vs. Luca ... hummm .... LOL