Formula One remained poised on the brink last night after crunch talks between Max Mosley, Bernie Ecclestone and the teams failed to resolve issues arising from the governing body’s insistence on a £40m voluntary budget cap in 2010.
The meeting, at Heathrow, was compromised when Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo, also the president of the Formula One Teams Association and one of the prime protagonists against Mosley, was unable to attend due to the death of his father. He was represented by Stefano Domenicali, Ferrari team principal.
It also transpired that Ferrari have applied to a French court for an injunction against the proposed changes in Formula One, which they claim breach their right of technical veto, and the closure of entries to the 2010 championship by the end of May. “During the meeting it became apparent that Ferrari have made an application to the French courts, and I don’t know the details, but it is to apply for an injunction to stop us doing what we want to do,” Mosley admitted.
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Earlier this week the Italian team, the heavyweight of the sport and the only one to have contested every world championship since 1950, allied with Toyota, Red Bull and Renault in threatening to withdraw at the end of this season unless fundamental revisions are made to the new regulations. Independent
“There has been no compromise at all,” Max Mosley, the FIA president, said. “As things stand the teams have gone to see if they can come up with something better than the cost cap. They asked for a fortnight but I have told them it will have to be sooner than that.
“We explained we cannot put back the entry date of May 29, as this has all been published, and we cannot disadvantage the potential new teams who will come in. But we are prepared to listen to whatever they have to say.”
Mosley said there had been an awkward moment during the meeting when he received notification of Ferrari’s intention to seek an injunction, scheduled to be heard in Paris next Tuesday, by text message midway through the meeting.
He promptly informed the teams of the development and discovered that the Scuderia’s representative, team principal Stefano Domenicali, was not apprised of the situation.
“I thought that was quite original,” Mosley said, “to send a team principal in without informing him of his team’s intentions. I think he was slightly embarrassed.”
Ferrari believe they had a “right of veto” to any technical regulation and are contesting the legality of the FIA’s decision-making process. Mosley argued that Ferrari surrendered that right by joining the Formula One Teams Association last year. Telegraph.co.uk
His view was that Ferrari’s taking of legal action was a sign that they wanted to stay. “If they wanted to go, you would think they would just go,” he said, “andyet they are trying to get the rules changed.”
One of the underlying reasons for the FIA to introduce the budget-capped “two-tier” system is to encourage smaller teams to take the plunge and enter formula one. With room for three more teams on the grid – and possibly more if the dissenters really do leave the sport – Mosley believes that numerically, at least, there will be no problem in securing a representative grid.With consummate timing, British teams Lola and Litespeed yesterday indicated they would be interested in competing under the budget-capped regulations, news that will serve to strengthen Mosley’s hand in further negotiations with the established teams.
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Mosley made it clear that the FIA would give serious consideration to the new teams who will lodge entries for next year, making the point that it is necessary to have an early entry deadline so they can know exactly where they are. “There are a very large number of [new] people who have expressed an interest and a significant number of them are very serious,” he said.
Whether or not Ferrari will have any success effectively challenging the authority of the FIA in the French civil courts, the governing body being based in Paris, is questionable. Guardian.co.uk
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