Doubts over the strength of the recent FIA/FOTA Formula 1 peace deal re-emerged on Wednesday after the eight FOTA teams walked out of a meeting with the governing body.
Just two weeks on from the agreement between the feuding sides which appeared to avert the threat of a breakaway championship, all 13 teams confirmed on the 2010 grid met with the FIA at the Nurburgring for discussions which the governing body says were designed to formalise the rule changes which had been agreed in the compromise deal.
However, the meeting ended in disarray when representatives from the eight FOTA teams staged a walkout before the talks got round to discussion of the further regulation alterations it wants to see introduced for next season. ITV
FOTA, who had threatened to set up their own championship until what seemed to be a breakthrough deal was announced in Paris last month, said in a statement that the future of Formula One was again “in jeopardy”.
FOTA’s members are championship leaders Brawn GP, BMW-Sauber, Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull, Renault, Toro Rosso and Toyota.
However FOTA said they had been told during the course of Wednesday’s meeting by FIA technical head Charlie Whiting that “contrary to previous agreements” they had no voting rights because they had not yet fully entered for 2010.
The situation effectively left the five non-FOTA teams, four of whom have yet to score a point in Formula One, making decisions while the likes of Ferrari, champions with an unbroken 60 years in the sport, would have been simply observers.
A request for the meeting to be postponed was rejected and FOTA said they had no option but to walk out because they could not exercise their rights. Yahoo! Eurosport
“This was rejected on the grounds that no new Concorde Agreement would be permitted before a unanimous approval of the 2010 regulations was achieved,” FOTA said. “However, it is clear to the FOTA teams that the basis of the 2010 technical and sporting regulations was already established in Paris.”
FOTA said at no point in the June 24 meeting in Paris did the FIA request “unanimous agreement on regulations change expressed.”
“To subsequently go against the will of the WMSC and the detail of the Paris agreement puts the future of Formula 1 in jeopardy,” FOTA said. “As a result of these statements, the FOTA representatives at the subsequent Technical Working Group (on Wednesday) were not able to exercise their rights and therefore had no option other than to terminate their participation.” USA Today
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