The crisis isn’t over, it has just been given an extension. Rather than have a compromise agreement between FOTA, the FIA and FOM, the FOTA teams threw the ball back in the FIA’s court on the 29th of May, the day entries for the 2010 Formula 1 Championship closed.
The FOTA teams submitted their entries attached with a few conditions:
- A Concorde agreement that is signed by the 12th of June in return for a commitment by all the FOTA teams to commit until 2012
- The 2010 F1 regulations are the 2009 F1 regulations amendedwith the FOTA proposals
- All teams compete under the same regulations
And to show their solidarity, FOTA did a very smart move, they put a condition that all 9 entries can only be accepted together.
The FOTA statement is telling everyone that they haven’t moved an inch from their earlier positions. Whatever rumours where going around that McLaren and Haug were mediating and managed to pull out a compromise appear to be unfounded (or at least have not succeeded in convincing the two sides of the compromise). They have kept the door open on the budget cap but they are sending a clear message to the FIA to take them seriously.
So far we haven’t heard any official response from the FIA which means that something is going on behind the scenes. Given the demanding nature of the FOTA statement, Mosley would have immediately issued a statement rejecting these demands but he now does have a dilemma. With FOTA telling him that he either accepts or rejects all 9 entries together, he won’t be able to split more teams from FOTA and with only 1 current team (Williams) and 12 new teams Formula 1 will collapse (or at least won’t be Formula 1 as we know it) .
Of course the FIA could accept the teams on the condition that they accept the 2010 regulations making the whole thing even more of a mockery and extending the lifetime of this crisis further.
There will be a lot of behind the scenes activity happening over the next couple of weeks and lets hope it does result in a firm resolution to this issue and secures the future of F1 for the next few years.
In the meantime, the roller coaster ride continues as the next deadline of the 12th of June approaches
Instead of Bernie just muttering “another fine mess you have got us into, Max” he might just decide to start hittiing Max with a big stick, and all will be well.
The crux of the matter, to me, is that the teams have had enough of the power they have allowed Max to assume, and now want, and need, the FIA to revert to it’s proper role of “policeman” of motorsport.
IMHO it will be up to Bernie to convince Max to take a step back, and down.
If he can’t, it will be a matter of just how much of the proverbial hits the fan.