Friday, 19 June 2009 00:27
The Formula One Teams’ Association has thrown the sport into total chaos by announcing its eight members plan to set up their own breakaway series at the end of the season.
Following weeks of talks with the FIA aimed at breaking the deadlock in the bitter row over the 2010 budget cap and governance of Formula 1, a joint statement from Ferrari, McLaren, BMW, Renault, Brawn, Toyota and both Red Bull teams issued on Thursday night said they had grown tired of the governing body’s demands and had been left with “no alternative” other than to initiate a new series.
The threat, which would be cataclysmic for F1 if carried out, comes after the eight FOTA members met for 11th-hour talks at Renault's Enstone factory on Thursday evening to decide whether they would accept FIA president Max Mosley’s final compromise offer and submit unconditional entries for the 2010 season ahead of Friday’s deadline.
In its bombshell statement FOTA accused both the governing body and F1's commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone of trying to divide the group, adding that while it has strived to strike a peace it was no longer willing to "compromise on the fundamental values of the sport".
The FOTA statement said: "The FIA and the commercial rights holder have campaigned to divide FOTA.
"The wishes of the majority of the teams are ignored. Furthermore, tens of millions of dollars have been withheld from many teams by the commercial rights holder, going back as far as 2006. Despite this and the uncompromising environment, FOTA has genuinely sought compromise.
“It has become clear however, that the teams cannot continue to compromise on the fundamental values of the sport and have declined to alter their original conditional entries to the 2010 World Championship.
“These teams therefore have no alternative other than to commence the preparation for a new Championship which reflects the values of its participants and partners."
FOTA says its new championship will include all of Formula 1's existing household stars and major figures, with “transparent governance” one of its key goals.
It added that it would welcome new entrants to join its series and promised to improve the experience for fans.
“This series will have transparent governance, one set of regulations, encourage more entrants and listen to the wishes of the fans, including offering lower prices for spectators worldwide, partners and other important stakeholders," the statement added.
“The major drivers, stars, brands, sponsors, promoters and companies historically associated with the highest level of motorsport will all feature in this new series.”
Should there be no U-turn from the teams' alliance and they go ahead with their intention to set up a rebel championship, then it will mark a destructive conclusion to one of the biggest controversies in Formula 1's 60-year history.
After the FIA's World Motor Sport Council raised the ire of the teams by unilaterally passing an optional £40m budget cap, and two sets of technical regulations, for 2010 at the end of April, Ferrari, Renault, Toyota and Red Bull all threatened to pull their teams out of the sport at the end of the year if the rules stood as published.
With Mosley adamant a budget cap was necessary to safeguard F1’s future amid the recession and entice much-needed new teams onto the grid, FOTA remained at loggerheads with it over the future direction of the sport and several rounds of crisis talks ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix last month failed to end the standoff.
And while Williams and Force India were suspended from the teams' body after breaking ranks and submitting unconditional entries for the 2010 season, the remaining teams all made conditional applications for next season – stressing they would only enter if the 2009 rules were retained and a new Concorde Agreement signed.
McLaren, Renault, BMW, Brawn and Toyota were all subsequently handed provisional entries but told to drop their conditions by this Friday or risk being excluded from next year's grid.
Ferrari, Red Bull and Toro Rosso, meanwhile, were entered unconditionally with the FIA insisting they were duty-bound to continue in the sport until 2012 due to previous contractual agreements with the governing body and FOM.
But after further meetings between the two warring sides broke down on Tuesday, and a last-ditch exchange of letters detailing their respective compromise offers failed to break the deadlock heading into Friday, FOTA has now taken the most dramatic step available to it.
The teams' alliance added in its statement that it believed that it had already introduced a number of major cost reduction measures to get spending in the sport under control, reiterating that its members had offered the FIA their commitment to F1 until 2012 if its terms were met.
"Since the formation of FOTA last September the teams have worked together and sought to engage the FIA and commercial rights holder, to develop and improve the sport," its statement added.
"Unprecedented worldwide financial turmoil has inevitably placed great challenges before the F1 community.
"FOTA is proud that it has achieved the most substantial measures to reduce costs in the history of our sport.
"In particular the manufacturer teams have provided assistance to the independent teams, a number of which would probably not be in the sport today without the FOTA initiatives.
"The FOTA teams have further agreed upon a substantial voluntary cost reduction that provides a sustainable model for the future.
"Following these efforts all the teams have confirmed to the FIA and the commercial rights holder that they are willing to commit until the end of 2012."
The FIA's next move may be to promote the provisional new entrants it left on a standby list for the 2010 grid while it waited for a resolution to the FOTA row, with Prodrive one of the teams hoping to get the opportunity to join the already confirmed Team US F1, Manor and Campos squads.
Furthermore should the FOTA rival series become a reality, then it is likely to trigger a legal battle between the governing body and Ferrari and both Red Bull-owned teams
Ferrari has insisted the FIA broke the terms of its 2005 agreement with the governing body by introducing the budget cap without its consultation.
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