[VFX]

FOTA have announced their own Championship.

This is HUGE news...

Teams include, Ferrari, Maclaren, Brawn, Red Bull, Torro Rosso, Renault, Toyota & BMW.

With Alonso, Hamilton, Kimi, Button, Massa, Webber etc. all following with them.

Hopefully we'll see Silverstone, Imola, Montreal & Indy back on the circuit with Suzuka/Fiji alternating with the FIA Championship.

Maybe Lola withdrew their FIA entry to enter the FOTA Championship?

No doubt Ferrari & Red Bull are about to have a legal battle on their hands.

Wow, so many questions still hang in the air!

.

[BudVlad]

No more Max and Bernie!!
"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.

[croaker]

Don't get too excited yet. Things change fast in F1. Plus Ferrari, Red Bull, and STR are contractually obligated to participate next year. The law suits will start to fly if they do pull out. Plus they have less than a year to organize and set up an entirely new race series. They will also need to attract other teams since a grid of 16 cars would be dead boring. Not to mention the fact that they may as well re-name it the Ferrari/Maclaren racing series since you know they are going to ensure the rules allow them to dominate.

I do agree with most of their complaints though. Max and Bernie have made some crappy decisions over the last few years. KERS is a joke, the marketing of F1 is so off the mark I don’t understand how it even exists any more. Tickets are so freaking expensive that most of the grand stands are empty at each race. The German GP was a ghost town last year. For my son and I to go and sit at Sacs Corner ran me about $800. Not counting food and gas. This is just bad marketing. Filling the stands as much as possible should be the main priority. Not to mention that the TV coverage is horrible. I’m not a NASCAR fan, but they do it right when it comes to marketing.

Then there are the venues themselves. Bernie has really screwed the pooch here. The new tracks are simply OK and are not pulling in enough new fans. The night race is a cool gimmick, but how long before that gets boring? Meanwhile he cuts all GP’s from North America and is getting ready to flush the British GP. He does not seem to be taking a long term view. By putting all his eggs in the mid-east and far-east basket, he is marginalizing the mostly European fans of the sport.

For this reason I almost hope that the break away thing happens. F1 will be dead in a year. Who is going to show up? Who is going to watch it on TV? Do you see major sponsors paying to back Force India and USF1 or Ferrari and Maclaren? I do feel bad for USF1 though. Just as the US gets back into F1 it turns into the European version of IRL vs. Champ Car.

I can’t wait to see what happens next. At least Williams may win an F1 Championship again.

[croaker]

So who do you think has more to lose here?

The FIA has blamed factions within the Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA) for the failure of the two parties to reach agreement on the future of the sport, following the announcement that there will be a rival series next year.

The eight members of FOTA met at Renault's Enstone factory on Thursday night to discuss their response to the Friday deadline to lift conditions attached to their entries for the 2010 championship.

After deciding they could not accept what had been put on the table for them by FIA president Max Mosley, the teams confirmed that they would be setting up a breakaway championship in 2010.

The FIA has responded by expressing its disappointment about the decision, and says that some elements with FOTA had always tried to scupper a deal.

"The FIA is disappointed but not surprised by FOTA's inability to reach a compromise in the best interests of the sport," said the statement.

"It is clear that elements within FOTA have sought this outcome throughout the prolonged period of negotiation and have not engaged in the discussions in good faith.

"The FIA cannot permit a financial arms race in the championship nor can the FIA allow FOTA to dictate the rules of Formula 1."

The FIA says that its deadline for teams to lodge unconditional entries will remain as the close of business today, with the full 2010 entry list to be announced on Saturday.

"The deadline for unconditional entries to the 2010 FIA Formula World Championship will expire this evening," it said. "The 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship entry list will be announced tomorrow."

[croaker]

F1 Grid
Williams
Force India
USF1
Campos GP
Manor GP
Prodrive*
Lola*
Lotus*

FOTA Grid
Ferrari
Maclaren
Renualt
BMW
Toyota
Red Bull
STR
Brawn GP
N.Tech*

*Tentitive

Which would you invest in if you were a potential sponsor?

Which would you watch as a fan? Even Lotus would not be much of a draw since it is Lotus in name only and not a works team.

Plus I really think Williams and Force India may jump over as well since they get their engines from Toyota and Maclaren respectively. Unless they decide to go with Cosworth. Which would mean every F1 team would be using the same engine and gearbox. (yawn)

When you look at it like this it is clear that FOTA holds a great deal of power. F1 would really turn into F2 if Max gets his way here.

[E90SLAM]

Interesting to see FIA's next move on this will be....Max might be spanking more prostitudes instead....

[VFX]

Well Max likes paying to be spanked!

He just didn't expect a FOTA spanking!

.

[VFX]

Croaker - Lola wont be in the FIA F1 Championship. They confirmed their withdrawal. They might even have been tipped off to FOTA's plans.

Also, Dave Richard's long standing feud with Max may tip Prodrive towards the new Championship should it actually happen.

.

[croaker]

Originally Posted by VFX

Croaker - Lola wont be in the FIA F1 Championship. They confirmed their withdrawal. They might even have been tipped off to FOTA's plans.

Also, Dave Richard's long standing feud with Max may tip Prodrive towards the new Championship should it actually happen.

.

True. Lola may even throw in with FOTA as well.

Looks like the FIA response will be to sue FOTA. Fat lot of good that will do.

[E90SLAM]

FIA is starting legal proceedngs against FOTA of this threat...

http://www.planetf1.com/story/0,1895...389183,00.html

[lib]

If this does go through, hopefully we can get a few North American races again.

[EINSER M]

the drama continues...
FOTA grid > FIA grid
who in their right mind would watch FIA races vs FOTA cmon.

[croaker]

Old Max seems very confident that FOTA is bluffing. He may be right, but then again, he may get a big shit sandwich handed to him. It's like he is daring them to do it. Like he is scolding unruly children. I'm not sure who has their head up their ass further, Max or FOTA.

I'm guessing Max will eventually blink first. If he does step down in October he will not want his legacy to read "The Idiot That Ripped Apart F1."

Read Below.

FIA president Max Mosley has dismissed the threat of a breakaway championship as 'posturing' by teams, and is confident a compromise settlement will be reached in time for the first race of 2010.

Following the bombshell announcement made by the eight members of the Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA) that they were commencing plans for a rival series, Mosley has made it clear that he is not too worried about the situation.

He believes that eventually the teams will soften their stance, and he thinks it highly unlikely that they will be able to afford to set up a second F1 series.

"I don't take it as seriously as some people do because I know that it is all posturing and posing," Mosley explained in a lengthy interview with the BBC on Friday. "It will all stop sometime between the beginning of 2010 and March 2010, the first race. All this will stop, it will all settle down and everyone will go racing."

When asked if he was totally sure there would be a solution that headed off the possibility of two championships, Mosley said: "Absolutely. I am completely confident because in the end people do what it is in their interests to do.

"It is in the interests of the teams to be in the F1 world championship and there is actually no fundamental or important issue that is stopping them taking part. It is all about personalities and power and who can grab what from whom, which is easy when nothing is at stake but when it gets to the first race and it is make your mind up time, they will be there."

Despite the hardline stance adopted by FOTA, Mosley believes that there is little chance of the breakaway reaching fruition - and said it was easy for teams to talk up their plans at this stage of the year.

"They can be very hard at the moment because it doesn't actually come to anything until March 2010," he explained. "So we are nine months away. Everybody can posture and pose, but we all know that when it gets to Melbourne 2010 there will be a F1 world championship and everyone who can be in it will be in it."

He added: "Always with these things there is a compromise because they cannot afford not to run in the F1 world championship, and we would be very reluctant to have a Formula 1 world championship without them, and I am talking about the eight teams there.

"I think some of them will disappear because some of the manufacturers will look at the amount of money being spent, the measures they are having to take within their companies, the people being laid off and accepting government money to keep going, and they are going to find it very difficult to keep pumping hundreds of millions into F1.

"So I think we will lose one or two or maybe three manufacturer teams, so we will need new teams to make up the space. But the great traditional teams, and I would include Ferrari in that, they need to be there and they will be there for sure. It will get sorted out."