joemoia

Statement issued today by FOTA on behalf of BMW-Sauber, BrawnGP, Scuderia Ferrari, McLaren-Mercedes, Red Bull Racing, Renault, Scuderia Toro Rosso, Toyota.

"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.

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 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 thecommercial 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. 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 major drivers, stars, brands, sponsors, promoters and companies historically associated with the highest level of motorsport will all feature in this new series."

F1 Silverstone practice Friday 9:00AM on SPEED, should be interesting

FOTA Teams Announce Breakaway Series in 2010

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/76292

tomiboy

WOW! This should be interesting.

ghoffman

To say the least. About damn time. What value added is Bernie?

EvilBoffin

Bernie and Max are nothing less then megalomaniacs, hell-bent on personally owning and controlling every facet of international racing - and every dollar earned from it.

It serves them right, and it is truly about damned time SOMEBODY with some clout stood up to them.

I just hope this does not jeopardize our ability to watch these teams compete in their 'new' series on television here in the states. The typical ironclad media rights contract with Bernie could screw all the US fans in the long run...

Zoxxo

Ya know what? I don't care. I lived without F1 on TV for decades and if I have to go a few more months/years to be rid of Max & Bernie then it's a sacrifice I'll be happy to make.

I'm still not sure I should believe this, though. There's been waaaaaaaaay too much wimping out by the teams over the years to have full faith in them but I sure do have my fingers crossed.

Looks like you screwed up, Max! Time for another spanking!

Of course, the REALLY interesting part will/would be watching the FOTA gang figure out how to run their new enterprise without generating any grand conflicts. Good luck with that

Z//

EvilBoffin

Zoxxo -

I couldn't agree more - on all counts!!

We'll have to wait & see if this is just another of the teams' vague threats, meant to force the FIA back to the bargaining table. Or will it really mean something this time...

And if Mad Max wants a spec car series, I hear that "The New Chrysler" will give him a great deal on the VIPER !!

Hey, don't laugh - it's got a V10, and is NEARLY as obnoxious as Max is !!

.

burners

I look forward to some real racing with some real cars rather than the silly looking shopping carts they are running now.

tmak26b

Wow, they called Mosley's bluff

Zoxxo

I think that qualifies as the understatement of the week

I'm looking forward to the practice session on Speed in a few hours. I wonder what Peter will have to say

I'd *love* to be able to hear some of the phone calls between Bernie and the CVC Partners folks about now

Z//

AU N EGL

next F1 race will have interesting commentary from the Speed TV boyz



did not the Team owners of the LeMans race teams ask to meet the the FIA and the ACO the end of June ?

drivinhard

wow

Jason

Damn. F1 has been great the last few years, now this

BrianCunningham

Should make watching Silverstone interesting this week!

wtknght1

There is an old saying... it goes something along the lines of: "Those who don't study history are doomed to repeat it."

Having that in mind, do the terms CART and IRL come to mind?!?!!? That split didn't work because the primary players couldn't come to some sort of compromise and everybody lost out in the end. It took them a long time to somewhat fix it.

F1 better get its act straight and learn from previous mistakes!!! F1 is about nearly unrestricted technology (and money for that matter). It's where the majority of current street car gizmos (ABS, Traction control, active handling, aero efficiency, carbon fiber, etc...) came from and I doubt anyone wants that test bed of technology to go away.

Come on guys...get your head out of your 4th point of contact and come to some type of agreement that benefits everybody.

efranzen

I think the main thing that hurt that split was Tony George having control of the crown jewel in American open-wheel racing, the Indianapolis 500.

There are other examples though of where a split has been quite successful, such as when CART split from USAC in 1978.

Efranzen

Zoxxo

I think that the comparison to the CART/IRL split, while instructive, has its limits. Despite their success at the time of the split, CART was really primarily the domain of rich hobbyists. And they were up against the mighty cash cow of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It was quite one-sided when you boiled it all down to the fundamentals.

In the F1 case, the cash cow(s) is/are the manufacturers. Bernie is rich as hell but do you think he's going to invest *his* money in this? CVC Partners are in debt to their eyeballs so they're an unlikely source of revenue and the FIA certainly doesn't have the cash on hand to support Bernie's Big Top extravaganza.

If the manufacturers -really- want to do this, they can outlast, out lawyer, and outspend Bernie and company 20-to-1.

The thing to remember here is that Bernie already has his money in pocket and now this is all just a game to him. He stands to lose nothing whatsoever. He's the HIRED front man for CVC and he could easily decide to just retire to Majorca and tell the whole gang where to get off.

Varsha made some odd assertions this morning about how the FIA could deny licenses to tracks and drivers that sided with FOTA, but the EU takes a very dim view of such monopolistic actions and the FIA (and Bernie) have been forced by the European Commision in the past to give up such tactics (at the time they were using those means to deny CART global expansion as they were seen as a potential challenger to F1 (!!))

Z//

I just ran across this bit that's applicable here:

http://www.itv-f1.com/news_article.aspx?id=46161

Makes all the IRL/CART finances seem pretty wimpy, eh?

efranzen

Wow. I knew tracks had to pay a lot of money for the pleasure to host an F1 race but I had no idea it was nearly $24 million dollars!

Efranzen

joemoia

Or as Yogi would say "It's dejavu all over again"

It's reminicent of the FISA-FOCA war of the late '70's, except back then Bernie and Max were on the side of the constructors

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FISA-FOCA_war

Zoxxo

Some irony, eh? Mosley comes to power as "the sane candidate" as a result of Ballestre's despotic, quixotic leadership and now he's the one who's gone batty.

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." - Lord Acton

(This should not be taken to mean that I think Mosley is a great man )

Z//

Zoxxo

Notice how over the past few years Bernie has done everything possible to get F1 races staged in countries where the GOVERNMENT pays for them. This is reason #1 (through about #26 or so) why there will never be a successful F1 race in the U.S. while Bernie is in power. There is no goverment entity anywhere in the U.S. that would survive the "torch and pitchfork" masses once they found out how much money their elected representatives had forked over to the little weasel for a racing series that they know zero about. The race tracks themselves cannot make any money since Bernie ties up all the profits from track signage, souvenir sales, concessions, etc. The ONLY way to sell the races is to the government on the basis of "we bring a lot of tourists to town who spend money in your shops, restaurants, and hotels."

You can be sure that any FOTA series would address this issue PDQ. The manufacturers want races (yes, more than one) in the U.S. Period.

Z//