The FIA will ditch the idea of a two-tier F1 championship, but aren’t prepared to budge much on the £40m budget. That’s what seems to have come out of Max ‘n’ Bernie’s Big Budget Cap Meeting.
The F1 supremos met the leading teams – including Ferari, Toyota, Red Bull and Renault, who have all threatened to pull out of the championship if the 2010 regulations were enforced – in London on Friday but, in typical F1 form, the outcome of the meeting is anything but clear.
“We had an interesting meeting and exchange of views,” Mosley told the BBC after the meeting. “There will certainly not be a two-tier championship, but I’d be very reluctant to increase the budget cap above £40m because I think that would discourage new teams from entering.”
Such a compromise is still unlikely to impress the big teams. Mosley revealed that Ferrari have filed an injunction with a French court to prevent the budget cap being enforced. “I’d be very surprised if Ferrari do leave,” said the FIA boss. “[But ] when people start bringing proceedings it becomes very difficult to deal with them.”
Lil’ Bernie Ecclestone echoed Mosley’s sentiments. “I think it’s been agreed we shouldn’t have [the two-tier system], we should have just one system,” he said after the meeting. “I think everyone is more or less happy with the budget cap, it’s just a case of how much.”
Big Flav Briatore might disagree. “The rules should be written by us,” said the Renault boss before Friday’s meeting. “They can’t be imposed by Max without him speaking to anyone. That’s an unacceptable way to work.”
So the situation may be stickier than Bernie is making out. The big teams seem fundamentally opposed to a budget cap, while Max and Bernie are determined to push it through and attract new teams to F1.
It certainly doesn’t look like we’ll have a resolution before May 29 – the date by which teams must register for next year’s championship – so Mosley has hinted that the deadline could be extended.
Are we looking at the beginning of the end of the budget cap argument? Or just the end of the beginning? Watch this space…
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demoing commented on this article
Wednesday May 20, 2009 at 3:42 pm
what no one is asking and needs to be asked is did the other teams know about the veto ferrari had if not they have been cheating and the FIA have been helping them to for the last ten years.
But no one is asking this simple question
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Thundersley25 commented on this article
Wednesday May 20, 2009 at 4:00 pm
@ROBERTS RADIOS.COM Get Sebastien Loeb to drive it, because he never crashes.
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jimmy commented on this article
Wednesday May 20, 2009 at 4:36 pm
Ha ferrari lost the court injunction against the FIA. Bloody good job – I dont think Ive seen such sore losers since . . . well ever actually. I just wish they’d shut up and go if they’re going, or just shut up full stop if they’re staying
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jimmy commented on this article
Wednesday May 20, 2009 at 4:40 pm
and for the record, everytime all the manufacturers pull out of BTCC, it makes for brilliant racing and i see no reason why F1 wouldnt follow suit. the racing in the cosworth DFV era was always exciting so, nope ferrari, we arent bothered by your threats and i daresay F1 will be better off with a better balance of privateers and manufacturers
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ROBERTS RADIOS.COM commented on this article
Wednesday May 20, 2009 at 6:54 pm
@ Thundersley25 good point.
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hehe commented on this article
Wednesday May 20, 2009 at 7:19 pm
jimmy just look at McLaren when they tried to gain a point with a lie, don’t need to go back too far to remember WORSE sore losers… Max himself said he is glad Ron is no more cause now McLaren are like clay for him to shape as he likes.
F1 better? hahahaaaaaaa!!! good one! Next thing we know we’ll see Hyundai and Kia, oh, and maybe Tata too having a team on the grid. Very exciting indeed. Just cause other teams didn’t have THE BALLS it doesn’t mean the ones THAT DO are sore losers.
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Tak commented on this article
Wednesday May 20, 2009 at 7:20 pm
Somehow I keep agreeing with the reds, although I hate Ferrari’s little macho chesthairs. Athletics is all about the athletes, but motorracing should be about manufacturers developing still better cars. That can’t be done by artificially capping budgets. If any financial crisis limits budgets, that’s alright. If Max does, it’s not. You can’t uphold it anyway. If the application of a rule can’t be monitored, it’s a bad rule. If Ferrari stays, with the cap, they’ll still spend 400 mln a year. It just won’t show in the books.
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Tak commented on this article
Wednesday May 20, 2009 at 7:29 pm
For instance: all those mlns gave us enginemapping, telemetrics, aerodynamics, monocoques, tractioncontrol and carbon brakes. Real assets for the car industry as a whole. And flappy paddles off course… er…
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jimmy commented on this article
Wednesday May 20, 2009 at 7:35 pm
Hehe
I’m calling them sore losers because they lost today and immediately labelled formula one formula GP3. And mclaren eventually owned up that they had acted like chumps so im not sure how thats being a sore loser
and tata sponsors ferrari already actually!
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jimmy commented on this article
Wednesday May 20, 2009 at 7:41 pm
Tak
I can feel where your coming from but having a 40 mil cap wont stop innovation. it has already been mentioned that F1 in the early nineties was on around this mark and that was F1′s most innovative period – as the recession continues and the price of raw materials drop we will see the innovation. personally i think the potential of a 4wd car with adjustable wings is brilliant
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Bob72 commented on this article
Wednesday May 20, 2009 at 8:09 pm
I’m a massive F1 fan, I’ve been watching it since i was about 10 or 12 years old, and I’ve normally made efforts to watch every race since about 93 – 94. Some years have been amazing, and some utterly pointless. i used to go to the british GP every year from 95 onwards, but stopped in 2005 due to the soaring cost compared to Europe. I would normally be one of the last people to say I have had enough. But, Over the last 3 to 5 years there has been an endless stream of scandal and controversy. and I really think this will be the last straw for the FIA, the teams, the sponsors, and most of the fans.
Regardless of which team or driver you favour, and regardless of who leaves this year, Mosley is making a fine job of destroying the sport beyond repair, and it will not recover. This season has been amazing so far, not just because of Brawn, but the racing is genuinely better, and that is a sad thing because it will not be remembered for the racing, it will be remembered for the failings of the FIA and Eccleston to ensure the sport survives into 2010, in a format, and with teams that people are interested in watching.
If you don’t get what i mean by the last sentence, try tuning into a race series you know nothing about, and enjoying it. It won’t happen, you’ll turn off after 10 mins, and not make the effort to watch the next one. Thats where F1 will be next year, 30 minute highlites at 10pm, and crashes on youtube.
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Tom commented on this article
Thursday May 21, 2009 at 4:17 am
Demoing, yes all the teams knew about Ferrari’s veto privilege, however I can’t think of any time in the last two years they have used it.
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Showie commented on this article
Thursday May 21, 2009 at 6:35 am
Ferrari trying to over rule FIA.. though it would be for the better, did they really think they would get anywhere? once Scuderia Ferrari quits, everyone will follow. bye bye Formula One. simple as. except, what am i going to do with that 2 and a half hours of ever fortnight that i take out to watch Formula One? i got a season to plan this out.
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Van Driver commented on this article
Thursday May 21, 2009 at 10:11 am
Mos is a loonie. I don’t know what is he trying to achieve. Take over F1 for what? To prove that apart from appaling spare time activities he is acctually worth something or maybe just take world’s eyes of his dangler? This year we have FIA president ellection and this way no one will dare to step in.
He proves that he is strong and able and after this whole two-tier-budget-cup mess no one will give a monkey about his ‘private life’.
F1 will suffer badly. It already does from lack of stability, falling ratings and sponsors runing away.
So Max: We want to watch racing. As good as it can get. If it meens money so be it. We want to see Ferrari as well as Lola (stupid name) not your ugly face grinning from TV screens. If Lola can’t afford to race in F1… Tough. I hate Italians but would rather have them that people I know nothing about in my favourite sport.
As for you Max, I know one good ‘sauna’ in Soho.
Apparently they havefull stock of german WW2 memorabilia.
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Mark commented on this article
Thursday May 21, 2009 at 5:34 pm
Ferrari will be sweet if they can make their own race series with the others who are pulling out maybe they could call it f up-yours-mr-max-mosley-co s-we-ain’t-doing-what-you -want-us-to-do and to get in his face they could spend a billion pounds per race have no regulations and have a race everyday and everywhere.
If Ferrari are gonna do this all they really have to do is get Italy to suppourt them oh wait a minute they already have the governments suppourt.
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SPANNER commented on this article
Friday May 22, 2009 at 3:47 pm
WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOO!!
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G-Wiz F1 Team? commented on this article
Wednesday June 24, 2009 at 6:23 pm
Scott Speed for USF1?
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