[mlange]

SILVERSTONE - FORMULA One plunged into its biggest crisis in 60 years on Friday with eight of the 10 teams announcing plans to set up their own championship.

The teams association FOTA said BMW-Sauber, Brawn, Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull, Renault, Toro Rosso and Toyota were united in a decision that would split the sport in two if carried through.

'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,' said a statement.

'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.' The governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) had set a Friday deadline for teams to make their entries unconditional or risk exclusion in favour of would-be new competitors.

The eight FOTA teams had submitted entries conditional on the 2010 rules, which include a controversial budget cap, being rewritten and the signing of a new commercial agreement governing the sport.
Attempts by both sides to reach a compromise failed, with the FIA accusing teams earlier in the week of wanting to take over the sport.

The eight FOTA members met at Renault's Enstone headquarters on Thursday evening after receiving letters from FIA President Max Mosley urging them to drop their conditions and sign up.

Their statement accused the FIA and Ecclestone, who represents commercial rights holder CVC, of trying to divide them.

'The wishes of the majority of the teams are ignored,' the statement said. '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.' FOTA will have plenty of options when it comes to drawing up a calendar, with Formula One having discarded several European and American venues in recent years in favour of lavish new facilities in the Middle East and Asia.
Silverstone, which hosted the first championship race in 1950, will join that list after Sunday. -- REUTERS

[Mikko Nassi]

Massive news.

I hope the split does happen, would make for an interesting year .

The Ferrari situation is odd - FIA feels that they have already entered next year's championship so they have to race in it. I wonder if they could just run a low-budget team in F1 and call it say "Ferrari Junior Team" to really rub it in, and have their "proper" team in the FOTA series?

[BrianZ]

haha Bernie finally lost his empire? looks like it is still going ahead. or they are still trying to get the fia to change in a big way?

[JohnKing6]

haha Bernie finally lost his empire? looks like it is still going ahead. or they are still trying to get the fia to change in a big way?

Ultimately there probably needs to be a compromise. It would be incredibly difficult for the FOTA to set up a championship themselves without some form of involvement from the FIA and Bernie - they have power over the tracks, drive licences etc. Could a FOTA Championship without Monaco (for example) be a success?

The old CART/Indycar split was very similar - CART had the best teams, drivers etc when they split but didn't have the Indy500. Over a period of time, the top tops moved (back) to IndyCar because they couldn't get the sponsorship etc without the best venues. Does F1 really need the big manufacturers - absolutely not, for most of the history of F1, the big manuafcturers haven't got involved. Ferrari is something different - it would look weird having an F1 race without them....

[mlange]

No surprise to me - a good example of how to ensure you negotiate with some leverage behind you.

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http://www.itv-f1.com/news_article.aspx?id=46243

Formula 1 pulled back from the brink on Wednesday as rebel teams struck an 11th-hour deal with the FIA to prevent the sport splitting in two.

Following a meeting of the governing body’s World Motor Sport Council in Paris, the Formula One Teams’ Association dropped plans to form a breakaway championship in exchange for concessions from the FIA over cost-cutting and governance.

As part of the deal Max Mosley will stand down as FIA president when his current term of office ends in October – having signalled on Tuesday that he would seek re-election if what he saw as FOTA’s threat to the governing body’s authority persisted.

Mosley has also had to abandon his controversial budget cap scheme, although the manufacturer squads have agreed to deliver major additional cost savings over the next two years and have pledged their commitment to Formula 1 until 2012.

“There will be no split,” said Mosley.

“We have agreed to a reduction of costs.

“There will be one F1 championship but the objective is to get back to early 1990s level of spending within two years.”

Speaking about his own position, Mosley added: “I will not be up for re-election now we have peace.”

F1's commercial impresario Bernie Ecclestone, who had vowed to do everything in his power to keep the sport intact, declared that he was “very happy common sense has prevailed”.

The breakthrough ends months of public wrangling over the future direction of Formula 1, in which the eight FOTA teams have been at loggerheads with the FIA over its plans to introduce a budget cap in 2010 and the manner in which it governs the sport.

Specifics of the cost-cutting measures have not yet been released, but it appears the FIA has received undertakings from the teams to reduce costs on an aggressive timescale, but without the enforcement mechanism that a budget cap would entail.

One of FOTA’s main objections to the budget cap scheme was the potential intrusiveness of the auditing process and the power it would hand to the governing body to pore over the teams’ accounts.

The teams also wanted a phased approach to cost reduction to allow them time to downsize their organisations in an orderly fashion, and the two-year timetable mentioned by Mosley represents such a ‘glide path’.

However, getting budgets down to early 1990s levels by the end of 2011 will take them close to Mosley’s original target of £40 million per year. By what means such a drastic reduction is to be achieved remains to be seen.

The FOTA teams and car manufacturers had made it plain that Mosley’s abrasive leadership style was at the core of their objections to F1’s governance, and that they would not accept his remaining in office for a fifth term.

Mosley claims that he always intended to step down this October and only reconsidered that position because of what he saw as FOTA’s bid to emasculate the FIA, a threat which has now receded.

But there is no doubt the teams will regard it as a victory to have extracted from Mosley a firm pledge to bring his turbulent 16-year reign to an end in four months' time.

Now that all the current teams have signed up to next year's championship, the FIA will shelve plans to issue legal proceedings against Ferrari and FOTA and has confirmed the 2010 entry list.