FERRARI’S DISPUTE over Formula One worsened at the weekend after the head of motorsport’s governing body ignored the group’s threat to quit and named all of this season’s participants in the 2010 list of entrants.
The argument centres on plans to cap the budgets of F1 teams at $66m, which Max Mosley, president of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, said is necessary to restore the battered financial health of the sport. The plans have caused uproar among the big teams – particularly Ferrari and McLaren, who say the measure undermines their business models and will cause large-scale job losses.
But Ferrari’s threat of withdrawal and suggestions that disaffected teams could set up a rival series have cut little ice with Mr Mosley and the FIA, which set a deadline of Friday for unconditional entries for next season’s championship.
The FIA announced that Brawn GP, BMW-Sauber, McLaren, Renault and Toyota were provisional entrants. Inviting them to “lift their conditions”, the FIA said it would negotiate with them over the next week.
But in what looks like an attempt to split the teams, who have pulled together under the umbrella of the Formula One Teams Association, the FIA named Ferrari, Red Bull and Toro Rosso as unconditional entrants, even though they oppose the new measures.
The FIA believes contracts already signed with these teams commit them to next season’s championship.
Ferrari, which believes it has a right of veto over rule changes, claims that Mr Mosley’s budget cap plans and other rule changes invalidate its contract with the FIA. Following the FIA’s announcement, Ferrari reiterated its threat of withdrawal and said its 2010 entry was subject to conditions. “As of today, these conditions have not been met,” Ferrari said. The team added that it had expressly asked the FIA not to name it as an unconditional entrant.
Ferrari on Friday sought to put pressure on Mr Mosley by appealing to the FIA’s senate and world motorsport council to intervene. “All of these teams are united in their concerns about the present situation and are deeply worried about the crisis that Formula One now faces, a crisis that appears to be self-generated,” a news agency reported Ferrari as saying in a draft letter to the FIA bodies.
– FT Service