Formula One 2009

[Adam]

Mosley's suggested something like an 86mil cap for 2010 with it dropping to 39mil for 2011, the teams better accept, cos if next seasons F1 championship looks like this:

Williams

Force India

Campos

Manor

USF1

Prodrive

Team Lotus

Brabham

Lola

Then it is gonna suck, quite frankly. Especially if there's a rival championship. Brawn reckons that this dispute will soon end, and Thiessen, Horner and Whitmarsh have all said that they really want this matter resolved soon as well. Oh, and Briatore stated that he didn't think there'd be any lasting problem, so surely they should all agree to the rules by tomorrow.

[Matt]

FOTA have just announced a breakaway league.

[hugobomb]

source?

[Matt]

BBC Radio 5 Live, they're discussing it now.

[TheArsenal]

Mosley's suggested something like an 86mil cap for 2010 with it dropping to 39mil for 2011, the teams better accept, cos if next seasons F1 championship looks like this:

Williams

Force India

Campos

Manor

USF1

Prodrive

Team Lotus

Brabham

Lola

Then it is gonna suck, quite frankly. Especially if there's a rival championship. Brawn reckons that this dispute will soon end, and Thiessen, Horner and Whitmarsh have all said that they really want this matter resolved soon as well. Oh, and Briatore stated that he didn't think there'd be any lasting problem, so surely they should all agree to the rules by tomorrow.

Lola have declared themselves out of the running for a spot on the grid after they didn't get in first time round.

[GA!]

This is crap. I'd watch a breakaway league, but I don't want to see a split.

EDIT: Was that just a WCW/WWF reference on Five Live?

Edited June 18, 2009 by GA

[Sam]

FIA have fucked up big time, nobody wants to watch the likes of Lola, Prodrive, Manor etc. over Ferrari, Mclaren and Renault.

Edited June 19, 2009 by Sam

[Adam]

Just heard this news. I've only got one word for it.

Bullshit.

We'll see how I feel in the morning.

[TheArsenal]

FIA have fucked up big time, nobody wants to watch the likes of Lola, Prodrive, Manor etc. over Ferrari, Mclaren and Renault.

Once again, no Lola next year. They pulled out after they didn't make the first provisional grid for next year.

BBC article:

Lola has abandoned its plans to return to F1 after failing to secure a place on the initial 2010 entry list.

The constructor, which supplied cars for the likes of Graham Hill in the 1960s, last competed in F1 in 1997.

"Significant investment has been made in producing its 2010 contender," said a statement from the company.

"The International Motorsport Federation (FIA) had requested that the Lola F1 Team remain in a state of readiness for a possible future entry."

However, the team said they had now advised the FIA that they were no longer in the running.

Lola was on a list of possible new entrants to the 2010 championship.

The deadline for entries to next year's championship is Friday.

With many leading teams still not having confirmed their participation next year because of the on-going row about budgetary caps, and possibly being excluded next season, Lola could feasibly have been offered a chance on the revamped 2010 grid.

[Katsuya]

To make things worse for the FIA, another proposed team. n.technology pulled out today as well. I'd love it if FOTA ends up bringing Lola or one of the teams that got rejected over to their championship too.

[Adam]

Right, I've slept on it and have realised...I still feel the same. This will ruin pinnacle level motorsport. You can't have Formula 1 without names like Ferrari, McLaren and Renault, but you also can't have this breakaway championship without the huge name of Formula 1, and all the history and stuff that comes with it. This is gonna throw everything, absolutely everything, into chaos. These new teams who've signed up have signed up to compete against Ferrari, Brawn and Red Bull, not just Williams and Force India. Are they even gonna wanna be in it now? Plus, they can't just up and move to the Fota championship, because they've all signed up purely because the budget cap was going to be in place.

The BBC have an exclusive deal with F1, but they don't wanna be covering it if it's just Williams, Force India and a load of new teams. The breakaway group will have to be on pay tv, or, dare I say it...ITV. >_<

There's gonna be disputes over which tyres to use, which engine suppliers go where, what circuits are available etc. I don't wanna watch Fernando Alonso, Raikkonen and Button racing for Ferrari, Brawn and Renault in 'GP1' or whatever, but I also don't wanna see Adrian Sutil and Kazuki Nakajima in the F1 title race driving for Force India and Williams, with Campos and USF1 as 'top' teams as well.

Edited June 19, 2009 by AdamDRFC

[snakestylo]

w00t, never thought it would go so far.. Tho, in the beginning it was all fun with Brawn GP as another contender for the titles, now it has just turned into total domination. Maybe this screw-up wil make things better and more competitive in whatever will be the the strongest competition next season. I'm leaning towards "lower" classes just because the races are way more fun to watch.

Edited June 19, 2009 by snakestylo

[NotoriousGTT]

Untill i see the cars on the grid for a breakaway championship i wont believe it. Its all just powerplays and empty threats.

As much as i agree with what FOTA want (returning to key markets and historic tracks, better distribution of cash and less power to Mosely) i really cant see them launching a breakaway championship.

[EddieG]

Empty threats? A threat is saying they're going to walk out. They have walked out, it's beyond the threat.

[Matt]

Empty threats? A threat is saying they're going to walk out. They have walked out, it's beyond the threat.

Yeah but they're only doing it to force the FIA's hand. Although I wouldn't call it an empty threat, as I think if the FIA don't compromise at least some of them would start a rival competition.

[Rich]

So, race and weekend thoughts:

Happy for Vettel, drove impecciabley and was highly amused by his Schumacher-esque jump on the podium. Felt sorry for Mark Webber again, the guy surely has to get a break before the end of the season and win at least one race!

Brawn looked less spectacular and more solid than recent races, Rubens looked great, but my concern obviously lies with Jensen as if the Red Bulls have now surpassed Brawn his championship lead could dwindle relatively quickly. While on the subject of Brawn I am dissapointed to hear that Virgin do not look to be able to continue their relationship with the team next season and beyond, I thought a great British company sponosring a great British team was apt and the fit of the two felt right.

Other notes, was amazing to see the commitment of drivers like Alonso and Hamilton fighting out for positions well away from the points, but this part of the field kept the race entertaining in the face of Vettel's runaway victory. Was also very ipressed with the performance Felipe Massa put in, seems to have really enjoyed the race as opposed to some of the seasons earlier races.

On the political turmoil at the minute, having been a formula one fan all my life and having very vivid memoreis of the majority of championships for about 18 years I can safely say that the previous 3 years have been among the best entertainment-wise especially inlight of the Ferrari dominace of the early 2000's. To see the sport I know and love be in such distress is heartbreaking and I do not want to see this Fota split occur, I am hoping that it is more posturing and eventually we will see the teams and the FIA come to some sort of agreement so we can continue to have the championship the fans deserve in 2010 and beyond. I do not believe that the proposed split will occur, but this is not because I think its an empty threat, in fact I believe it to be very serious and worthy of worry, the reason I think it will not happen is because I think the teams and the FIA will reach an agreement over the coming weeks, but should this not occur the rival championship will be set up and I am of the belief that 2 world class single-seater championships can not co-exist and both be successful as the money involved will be too great, particularly in current times. I am of the belief and hope that an agreement will be reached, and I hope it is a cost cutting one, as I would love to have a grid of 24 or more cars with further entries and hoepfully next season we will be breathing a sigh of relief in Australia with teams like Ferrari and McLaren on the grid and we can lookk back at this period as one of political strife that has been overcome.

EDIT:

The opening/closing montage on the BBC was amazing and when it went through all Mansell/Hill/Herbet, memories from my childhood flooded back, this is why the BBC coverage is SO much better than ITV, I could deal with the adverts its just the manner the BBC goes about coverage brings the viewer in and makes them feel something about the sport, the ITV coverage was over mechanical.

Edited June 21, 2009 by Rich__Rude

[maninblack]

Happy for Vettel winning another race.

I still think Button will be able to wrap it up come July or August though.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Interestingly heard in a few places that Button was always gonna struggle in Britain cos his smooth driving style doesn't work so well in colder weather cos he doesn't heat up the tyres so well cos of his style which would have led to his lack of grip. In warmer GPs that's an advantage cos the tyres heat up anyway.

[Jayzon]

The FIA-FOTA war is over, and Mosley will not continue as FIA President.

[Adam]

An agreement has been reached between Formula 1's governing body and the teams to prevent a breakaway series, says FIA president Max Mosley.

The two parties had been engulfed in a bitter row over planned budgetary and technical changes for the new season.

But it appears a resolution has now been found and, as part of the deal, Mosley has agreed not to stand for re-election as president.

"There will be no split. We have agreed to a reduction of costs," added Mosley.

"There will be one F1 championship but the objective is to get back to the spending levels of the early 90s within two years."

F1 surpremo Bernie Ecclestone added that he is "very happy common sense has prevailed", following a meeting of 120 members of the FIA in Paris aimed at resolving the crisis.

Ahead of the meeting, Mosley had insisted that he would not step down as part of any potential agreement and might even seek re-election as head of world motor sport.

He hit out at what he described as "wholly unjustified criticism" of the FIA, adding: "It is for the FIA membership, and the FIA membership alone, to decide on its democratically elected leadership, not the motor industry and still less the individuals the industry employs to run its Formula 1 teams."

However, it appears Mosley has now agreed to move aside when his fourth term as FIA president ends in October, while writs that had been threatened against Ferrari and the other teams in the Formula 1 Teams Association (Fota) - McLaren, BMW Sauber, Renault, Toyota, Red Bull Racing, Toro Rosso and Brawn GP - are likely to be shelved.

"It's come as a bit of a surprise, given that Fota were planning to meet in Bologna on Thursday to discuss their plans for the breakaway championship," reports BBC sports news correspondent James Munro in Paris.

"But what we got today after a meeting of World Motorsport Council was an impromptu press conference and Max Mosley began by saying there will be no split, there will be one championship.

"He said that over the course of the negotiations he had been able to secure guarantees from the teams who were threatening to get away that they would try to reign back the levels of their spending to the levels they were spending in early 90s.

"It was him that had come up with the idea that next season all teams would have a budget cap of about £40m, but there has clearly been a trade-off as he has also agreed to do what he says was always the plan - stand down as president of the FIA this October."

More to follow.

There's the whole article for anyone who doesn't want to click the link. This is terrific news, sense has prevailed in the end.