Comments on: Decisive week as future of F1 takes shape

By: john g

john g — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:36:57 +0000

Leigh, read pat symmonds comments made during the friday press conference at Nurburgring (i think) regarding a series split. he says that the situation is much more akin to what happened in US racing about 20 years ago when a split was created over reasons of governance and revenue, and the breakaway was the successful series.

By: Leigh O'Gorman

Leigh O'Gorman — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:10:53 +0000

The thought of an F1 version of the CART/IRL mess is a scary one – something that still scars US single-seater racing to this day

By: Harveyeight

Harveyeight — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 22:45:31 +0000

Rumours seem to suggest that today, Wednesday, is the day when an announcement will be made with regards any agreement between FOTA and CVC and even, perhaps, FOM. One would assume that the FiA would have been approached with the decision before the announcement.

So what’s going to happen? We’ve now got empty stands in Germany despite a quarter of the field coming from just down the road, then there’s the gap in the programme next season where the German GP used to be. We look to have no French GP, none in Britain (despite the suggestion we might have two) and just two or three in the remainder of Europe. The rest on sand or rice.

The current dabacle has hurt the sport. Is the decision going to be a new dawn with everyone pulling together or is it going to be just another disasterous headline?

I’m nervous.

By: Baart

Baart — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:56:32 +0000

FOTA ? what is it?
It`ll be GPOTA rather

By: john g

john g — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:22:38 +0000

what is the contract between the teams and CVC – on what grounds could CVC sue the teams if they left the FIA championship for ‘GP1′ – CVC would still have FIA F1. of course, it would be worth a fraction of what it was, but that’s their and bernie’s problem.

if a breakaway series did go ahead, it would be nice if it wasn’t tied to a faceless corporate entity that needed to take hundreds of millions of dollars out of the sport each year just to service the huge debts it ran up when it bought the rights from bernie. talking of rights, and bernie, what hold does he have over Formula 1? there are Formula 1′s in a wide variety of sports, none of which have anything to do with bernie.

By: rpaco

rpaco — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:26:37 +0000

“As regards CVC (well, FOM) suing the FIA, on what grounds do you think they could do that?”

Once you reach a certain number of millions in your bank account you can sue anybody for anything with a 50% chance of winning. The only certainty is that the lawyers will get even richer!

By: Richie Mee

Richie Mee — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:34:27 +0000

Trouble is, are the teams at the top of the FOTA tree very interested in close racing being reintroduced… no.

By: Steven

Steven — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:53:15 +0000

This makes some sense to be honest. Having Bernie and CVC on board would make a breakaway appealing knowing that GP1 would become the premier racing series and that within one or two years it will be merged back into Formula One. All it takes to stay in one though is Max Mosley to leave. I have the utmost respect for him and understand why he was upset after di Montezemelo make those quite nasty remarks. But Max is a big boy so walk out with your head held high and leave the FIA to Vatanen and have a unified F1 (either now or two years down the line).

By: Peter Rafferty

Peter Rafferty — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:04:43 +0000

Splitting the sport in 2 may lessen it’s value but if FOTA pick the right set of regulations for the proposed GP1 then that loss may not last long.

Imagine a championship with racing being reintroduced with the best drivers and race engineering in the world! If that doesn’t bring disillusioned fans back to the sport nothing will!

By: Silas Denyer

Silas Denyer — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 09:14:19 +0000

First, whilst CVC obviously have influence, surely the teams’ agreements are with FOM, not with CVC? I realise the point seems moot, but it is important, not least because it ringfences Ecclestone’s continued involvement by virtue of his shareholdings.

Obviously we are not party to the agreement which governed the sale of the commercial rights for F1. However, given Mosley’s legal background, it seems almost beyond belief that CVC, FOM et al would be able to proceed as you seem to suggest they may without threat of considerable sanction. Now, clearly, it may be that the main sanction would be the voiding of the commercial rights to F1, which CVC may believe have little value. But then again, if CVC lose the F1 rights, that might void their circuit contracts.

As regards CVC (well, FOM) suing the FIA, on what grounds do you think they could do that? I really don’t think that Mosley is actually stupid enough to do anything which is not within the normal rules of the FIA; in fact, the teams have almost gone out of their way to note the lack of any formal reason why the FIA’s actions were invalid.

It is all, of course, a mess. It is just a great shame that pettiness has percolated into all of this; for my part, I was MUCH happier with the FIA’s 2010 regulations than with anything else I’ve seen in F1 in the last few years.