fota

I’ve just received a press release from FOTA, stating the following:

All FOTA Teams have today submitted conditional entries for the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship.

FOTA confirms all its Members’ long-term commitment to be involved in the FIA Formula One World Championship and has unanimously agreed further and significant actions to substantially reduce the costs of competing in the Championship in the next three years, creating a mechanism that will preserve the technological competition and the sporting challenge and, at the same time, facilitate the entry in the F1 Championship for new Teams. These measures are in line with what has been already decided in 2009 within FOTA, achieving important saving on engines and gearboxes.

All FOTA teams have entered the 2010 championship on the basis that:

1) The Concorde Agreement is signed by all parties before 12th June 2009, after which all FOTA teams will commit to competing in Formula One until 2012. The renewal of the Concorde Agreement will provide security for the future of the sport by binding all parties in a formal relationship that will ensure stability via sound governance.

2) The basis of the 2010 regulations will be the current 2009 regulations, amended in accordance with proposals that FOTA has submitted to the FIA.

All FOTA teams’ entries for the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship have been submitted today on the understanding that (a) all FOTA teams will be permitted to compete during the 2010 Formula One Season on an identical regulatory basis and (b) that they may only be accepted as a whole.

All FOTA teams now look forward with optimism to collaborating proactively and productively with the FIA, with a view to establishing a solid foundation on which the future of a healthy and successful Formula One can be built, providing lasting stability and sound governance.

This is an interesting, if not unsurprising development. However what shouldn’t be ignored is that the FIA is yet to comment on FOTA’s proposals and there is absolutely no guarantees that the FIA will amend the 2010 regulations as FOTA wishes. As was reported and correctly predicted in Monday’s GPWeek however, the teams have used the clever option of entering FOTA as a block so that if any conditions are not met, F1 immediately loses nine teams (all existing teams minus Williams.) It also means that if the FIA wants a full grid, it can’t possibly drop one of the existing teams in favour of a new team, as the block entry is for all nine teams as a unit.

The FIA’s response will be very interesting indeed, as FOTA has admitted that it is now ready to do a deal over the Concorde Agreement, something which Bernie Ecclestone will be keen to convince his old friend Max to agree to sooner rather than later.