Post by blacktulip on Jun 6, 2009 9:45:43 GMT
FIA president Max Mosley threw down the gauntlet to the dissenting FOTA teams earlier this week, telling them that if they are not happy with the 2010 Formula 1 rules as they stand then they should make their own arrangements.
ITV.com/F1 columnist James Allen considers whether FOTA is in a position to call Mosley’s bluff.
Max Mosley has suggested to the FOTA teams that they go off and start their own series if they do not like the terms on offer in F1 next year.
It is a high-stakes game that both sides are playing here.
The teams have made it clear that they will not enter the 2010 world championship unless the rules are basically the same as 2009 and the Concorde Agreement is signed by June 12.
As things stand the two sides are a long way apart with only a week to go before the deadline.
Mosley has been encouraging the teams to do their own series for some time now. I’ve heard him say that for several years.
He always compares the situation to a restaurant: The teams may eat there every week and spend a lot of money there, but that doesn’t mean they own the restaurant.
The FIA owns F1 and, as things currently stand with no Concorde Agreement in place, the mechanism for making the rules is slanted in their favour. This is one of the reasons why the teams want the new one signed.
Mosley says that the FIA would be obliged under EU law to sanction a new series or at least not stand in its way, but I imagine FOTA would want a complete break from the FIA.
The teams do not seem to want to talk openly about the idea of their own series so far, but I wonder if that will change this weekend.
On paper it does seem like a very bad time for the manufacturers to incur the expense of getting something like that started.
But some of them feel that maybe this is the right moment to break free of Mosley and Bernie Ecclestone once and for all.
BMW’s Mario Theissen said that he feels the solution lies in a negotiated settlement with the FIA.
But the existence of the possibility of a new series is a way for the FOTA teams to play a strong card at this vital moment in the process.
On paper a new series looks quite impressive; there are some very strong team names, backed by major corporations.
The key would be Ferrari, who probably have the most desire to go their own way, but who appear to have a legally binding contract with the FIA.
What happens next really hinges on whether that contract is binding or not.
Of course the sponsors would want reassurance that the TV package the teams could put in place for a new series would deliver strong numbers and there is no way that a series started this late could get close to the numbers F1 gets.
But some FOTA team managers believe that some strong TV deals could be done. They may not make the kind of money Ecclestone makes from his deals for F1, but in some countries there would be some money to be made.
And in key markets like the UK, Germany, France, Japan, Brazil it should be possible to find strong TV networks willing to show it.
Italy would be interesting, as the head of RAI has already made it clear that they would want to review their contract if Ferrari were not in F1.
The easy bit would be putting the cars out there. Each team could easily field three cars, making 24 cars (if Force India decide to stay with the FIA).
And finding the circuits would be a doddle since many of the recent tracks, which Ecclestone has abandoned because the promoters cannot match his fee demands, are up to modern safety standards.
You could easily imagine a championship featuring races at Silverstone, Magny-Cours, Imola, A1 Ring, Valencia, Jerez, Fuji, Montreal and so on.
Each of these has some money to offer the new series, even if it isn’t F1 money.
But a new series would only have to raise half of the revenues of F1 for the teams to be getting the same income, as currently they only receive half of F1’s commercial revenues anyway.
If nothing else the teams still hold these cards in their hands and there is no doubt that if they turned out not be to bluffing and went ahead and did it, then Ecclestone would have huge problems with the TV companies and promoters he has done deals with because the F1 field would be missing its top names.
The finance company behind Ecclestone, CVC, would have immense problems servicing their debt or selling the assets.
The final note is to say that it’s interesting that Mosley not only is suggesting that the FOTA teams do their own series but, according to Theissen, he also suggested that they put in a conditional entry.
“When we had the meeting with Max in Monaco, it was his idea to put in a conditional entry,” Theissen said.
“We are now really committed to find a solution with the FIA to go forward together,” he added.
ITV.com/F1 columnist James Allen considers whether FOTA is in a position to call Mosley’s bluff.
Max Mosley has suggested to the FOTA teams that they go off and start their own series if they do not like the terms on offer in F1 next year.
It is a high-stakes game that both sides are playing here.
The teams have made it clear that they will not enter the 2010 world championship unless the rules are basically the same as 2009 and the Concorde Agreement is signed by June 12.
As things stand the two sides are a long way apart with only a week to go before the deadline.
Mosley has been encouraging the teams to do their own series for some time now. I’ve heard him say that for several years.
He always compares the situation to a restaurant: The teams may eat there every week and spend a lot of money there, but that doesn’t mean they own the restaurant.
The FIA owns F1 and, as things currently stand with no Concorde Agreement in place, the mechanism for making the rules is slanted in their favour. This is one of the reasons why the teams want the new one signed.
Mosley says that the FIA would be obliged under EU law to sanction a new series or at least not stand in its way, but I imagine FOTA would want a complete break from the FIA.
The teams do not seem to want to talk openly about the idea of their own series so far, but I wonder if that will change this weekend.
On paper it does seem like a very bad time for the manufacturers to incur the expense of getting something like that started.
But some of them feel that maybe this is the right moment to break free of Mosley and Bernie Ecclestone once and for all.
BMW’s Mario Theissen said that he feels the solution lies in a negotiated settlement with the FIA.
But the existence of the possibility of a new series is a way for the FOTA teams to play a strong card at this vital moment in the process.
On paper a new series looks quite impressive; there are some very strong team names, backed by major corporations.
The key would be Ferrari, who probably have the most desire to go their own way, but who appear to have a legally binding contract with the FIA.
What happens next really hinges on whether that contract is binding or not.
Of course the sponsors would want reassurance that the TV package the teams could put in place for a new series would deliver strong numbers and there is no way that a series started this late could get close to the numbers F1 gets.
But some FOTA team managers believe that some strong TV deals could be done. They may not make the kind of money Ecclestone makes from his deals for F1, but in some countries there would be some money to be made.
And in key markets like the UK, Germany, France, Japan, Brazil it should be possible to find strong TV networks willing to show it.
Italy would be interesting, as the head of RAI has already made it clear that they would want to review their contract if Ferrari were not in F1.
The easy bit would be putting the cars out there. Each team could easily field three cars, making 24 cars (if Force India decide to stay with the FIA).
And finding the circuits would be a doddle since many of the recent tracks, which Ecclestone has abandoned because the promoters cannot match his fee demands, are up to modern safety standards.
You could easily imagine a championship featuring races at Silverstone, Magny-Cours, Imola, A1 Ring, Valencia, Jerez, Fuji, Montreal and so on.
Each of these has some money to offer the new series, even if it isn’t F1 money.
But a new series would only have to raise half of the revenues of F1 for the teams to be getting the same income, as currently they only receive half of F1’s commercial revenues anyway.
If nothing else the teams still hold these cards in their hands and there is no doubt that if they turned out not be to bluffing and went ahead and did it, then Ecclestone would have huge problems with the TV companies and promoters he has done deals with because the F1 field would be missing its top names.
The finance company behind Ecclestone, CVC, would have immense problems servicing their debt or selling the assets.
The final note is to say that it’s interesting that Mosley not only is suggesting that the FOTA teams do their own series but, according to Theissen, he also suggested that they put in a conditional entry.
“When we had the meeting with Max in Monaco, it was his idea to put in a conditional entry,” Theissen said.
“We are now really committed to find a solution with the FIA to go forward together,” he added.
