Meanwhile word is reaching me that A1 GP boss Tony Teixeira has now agreed a deal to acquire Campos, the money is yet to be handed over, however. Campos has a slot on the grid this season, Stefan does not, but wants one badly.

And, intriguingly, with several new teams struggling one way or another, it appears that a deal may have been agreed whereby the new teams will be allowed three ‘no-shows’ at races in the next season.

Stefanovich (right) in Cologne last month

The deal is reputed to be a very generous one, it gives a team the cars Toyota developed for 2010, plus technical support from the staff Toyota has maintained for very little cost. It’s almost a turn-key operation. I’ve spoken to some of the new team owners about this deal and they had their own reasons for turning it down, despite the fact that the alternative requires massive investment and infrastructure. In the case of Lotus, the specific terms and conditions were not attractive, as they involved Lotus dispensing with the services of key personnel. Ironically many of the Toyota staff have now gone to Lotus, so much so that Jarno Trulli says he feels very at home already with the team.

As FOTA president Martin Whitmarsh said before the Stefan announcement on Friday, “Toyota built two cars that were available from Christmas, and I am rather surprised that some of them (new teams) did not do that – they rather looked a gift horse in the mouth. That was perhaps the wrong decision, but nevertheless they had their own reasons for that decision. We have to see in the coming weeks or months whether we can help those new teams to be there to add to the flavour and diversity of F1.”

It’s pretty late in the day now, the deal was on offer last November. Team principal Zoran Stefanovich appears to enjoy some governmental support thanks to his industrial connections in the aerospace and aviation business. He has been looking at Toyota F1 since the pull out and has been a frequent visitor to the team HQ in Cologne, Germany. He has been putting out regular messages, such as the car, dubbed S-01, passing its crash tests on 29 December. But it has taken until now for him to commit. The question is, why has he committed now? Is there about to be a 13th slot on the grid for him?

The team has said that if it does not get an entry this time it will test throughout the year, as it is entitled to do as it would be outside F1 restrictions. But this statement looks like the firing gun for a period of pressure to get a race entry in 2010.

Teixeira with Felipe Massa

Teixeira recently lost a $4.5 million lawsuit with Team USA over withdrawing their franchise in the A1 GP series.

It’s a very delicate process and needs to be handled carefully, but the FIA and FOM will understandably want some assurances; the last thing anyone wants is for the whole new teams initiative to turn into an embarrassment.

The next F1 commission meeting this week will be very interesting.

The noises I hear on Renault are that the meeting was broadly supportive of the F1 programme, for now at least. There will be no sudden pull out, it seems.

And this is important because the balance of power is shifting in F1 back towards the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone. The lesson of 2009 was that if the teams stay together, as FOTA did, with the backing of the world’s leading car makers they can get things done. FOTA won the battle in June when it threatened the breakaway series and forced Max Mosley and the FIA to back down on its budget cap proposals, but it looks like the other side is winning the war.

With BMW and now Toyota out FOTA’s power is being diluted, thanks to a host of fragile new teams, all behoven to Ecclestone for the $10 million cheque and liable to side with whoever can help them to survive, rather than feel a spirit of brotherhood with their rivals. Especially when rivals like Ferrari publicly belittle them as non-entities, barely worthy of being in F1, as they did in May and again yesterday.

Ferrari were dismissive of the new teams on their website yesterday,
“In reality, the steady trickle of desertion is more the result of a war against the big car manufacturers, ” it said. “Formula 1 continues losing important parts. In exchange, if one could call it that, Manor, Lotus, USF1 and Campos Meta arrived. You might say, “same-same” because it is enough if there are participants. But that’s not entirely true and the we’ve got to see if next year we’ll be really as many in Bahrain for the first starting grid of the 2010 season.”

Ferrari feel that Sauber should be in F1 ahead of all the new teams. They are a long time Ferrari customer and will be again next year. FOTA needs another strong partner, as Sauber would be. It also needs Renault to maintain the balance. Without that their influence will diminish on issues like forcing Ecclestone to retain the British Grand Prix or to put a US Grand Prix back on the calendar. And where will their diminished power leave them in the negotiations which are set to start soon into the new Concorde Agreement post 2011? The teams are looking to greatly increase their share of the commercial revenues from the sport. Having the big manufacturers behind them increased their bargaining power. It will be much easier now for them to be divided and ruled.

As Ecclestone observed yesterday, “When you look at the history, since Formula 1 started, I think there have been 73 teams coming and going.” Only Ferrari has stayed the course.

Defeated FIA presidential candidate Ari Vatanen couldn’t resist having his say on the latest developments and had a pop at the FIA, “We must realise the economic reality is nothing to do with the crisis, ” he said. “Big companies always look to market and promote, even when times are tough, but only if it is in a sensible way. I do hope [Renault do not leave], but if they do it is the final alarm call that we cannot continue with business as usual. I’m sad to say the old guard are still in power in the FIA, but teams are starting to vote with their feet.”

The withdrawal of manufacturers was foreshadowed by Mosley last year. The issue here is did he see that they were likely to jump and acted accordingly, or did he give them a push?

Today Renault held a scheduled meeting to discuss its future participation in F1. It appears that there will be no communication about the outcome of that meeting until later in the week. French colleagues tell me that they do not expect Renault to pull out, but there is a panicky feeling in the air, as there was after Honda withdrew last Christmas.

The BBC is reporting that acting team principal Bob Bell and managing director Jean Francois Caubet attended the meeting but were not allowed to participate. For Robert Kubica these will be anxious times. He recently signed a deal with Renault and has already suffered one manufacturer’s sudden decision to withdraw this year with BMW.

The Japanese companies’ withdrawal is the first major crisis for new FIA president Jean Todt to deal with. This afternoon the FIA put out a statement which said that the developments were “a concern” and added,

“Toyota’s decision..comes just weeks after its F1 team signed the new Concorde Agreement until 2012.

“Urgent clarification is now being sought from the Toyota F1 team as to its legal position in relation to the championship. This will have a direct bearing on the admission of any future 13th entry.”

My understanding is that Sauber is being told that Toyota is not going to merely give up its entry. Instead it is examining the possibility of selling the entry, or of John Howett leading a Ross Brawn-style management buyout. The employees of Toyota’s F1 factory in Cologne are being paid up to the end of February.

Meanwhile FOTA also issued a statement today which laid some of the blame for Toyota’s withdrawal on the conduct this season of outgoing FIA president Max Mosley,

“Regrettably, notwithstanding Toyota’s commitment to compete until 2012 deriving from the signature of the Concorde Agreement, the particular financial pressures within the car manufacturing industry – together with a period of uncertainty and unnecessary confrontation in F1 that is now finally over – created conditions which have made it difficult for Toyota to stay in the sport at this time.”

Toyota has been dogged by rumours that it may pull out at the end of the season. Earlier this year there was a political dimension to this; it suited some people to cast doubt on Toyota’s commitment. Generally there is no doubt that the sudden withdrawals of Honda last Christmas and BMW this summer have dented confidence within F1 circles in the manufacturers’ assurances of participation. Assurances are one thing, guarantees are another and in the absence of the latter the rumours will not go away. The fear of the team is that this will become a self-fulfilling prophesy.

However Toyota has signed the Concorde Agreement, tying it in until 2012 and although Howett is not able to say with 100% certainty that the Toyota team will be in Bahrain next March, the team is carrying on with that goal in mind. There is no evidence to the contrary at the moment, only signals which are being interpreted as Toyota hedging its bets, such as releasing both drivers, not setting a budget until November and big cutbacks in other areas of Toyota’s business.

“I think his (Yamashima’s) position is that we should be here until 2012 and I think on the point of giving an absolute guarantee, I think he was just pragmatic in saying that you can never really give that, “Howett told Autosport.

Yesterday in the FIA press conference he added, “I expect to be back at Suzuka hopefully without the rain next year.”

As for the driver market, Toyota is chasing both Kimi Raikkonen and Robert Kubica, but quick checks on this reveal that neither driver is likely to head there.

Kubica is expected to be announced shortly at Renault, as replacement for Fernando Alonso,
“I think the market is very fluid,” said Howett. “I think we have tried to be fair to the drivers to say that we may not have seats for them and therefore I think it is fair and transparent to do that. We remain in contact with both of them, particularly Timo (Glock). But I do feel there will be movements in the driver market, some movements even that people aren’t speculating about at the moment and therefore we want to be free to consider the best option for the team for next year. We think we will have a strong car and we want good results.”

I find this curious wording; ‘we remain in contact with both of them’ is surely a given, as they see each other on a daily basis at Grands Prix.

Part of the strategy here is something we are seeing across the board this year, which is the FOTA teams working hard to push driver salaries down.

Letting Glock and Trulli know that they are free to look around is backed up by an insistence that the retainers on offer are substantially lower than previously. Both men know that, assuming Toyota continue, it would be their best option.

Briatore: Long and controversial F1 career is over

A brief statement from the team at midday today said, “The ING Renault F1 Team will not dispute the recent allegations made by the FIA concerning the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. It also wishes to state that its managing director, Flavio Briatore and its executive director of engineering, Pat Symonds, have left the team.”

With the main architects of the ‘plot’ no longer in position and Piquet granted immunity from prosecution, the way is clear for the FIA World Council to deal with the team relatively gently on Monday.

There is no evidence that anyone else was involved. There is little reason for the hearing to take place if the team will not contest the charges and the two principals have already fallen on their swords. There is only the question of punishment. There is no question of throwing the team out of the world championship or hitting them witha $100 million fine, as McLaren was in 2007. There may be a fine to be paid or some sort of minor sentence, but as the management has changed it seems irrelevant to punish the team and other employees who were not in on the plot.

Renault itself has suffered a great deal of bad publicity over this and having now effectively pleaded guilty to the charges, the actions of Symonds and Briatore have put a stain on the company’s reputation. They were responsible for looking after Renault’s brand and reputation through competing in F1 and they did this.

Briatore has thought about stepping down in recent years anyway, but was persuaded by Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn to stay on in the job. As he said at the weekend, at 59 years of age and with so many other business interests, he hardly needs the salary.

However it will be interesting to see whether the FIA decides to ban him and Symonds from involvement in motorsport. Briatore’s company manages the careers of some significant F1 drivers including Mark Webber and Heikki Kovalainen. If he is banned from F1, he will have to hive off his interest in the management company. Briatore will be able to satisfy his sporting instincts with the Queens Park Rangers’ football, of which he is part owner with Bernie Ecclestone, although relations between the two have suffered over the Singapore situation. Briatore is also set to become a father soon with his wife Elizabeth Gregoracci expecting their first child.

Symonds was offered immunity from prosecution in return for evidence which would convict Briatore, but chose not to take that route, instead falling on his sword and staying loyal to his long time colleague.

For Alonso, whom the stewards have absolved of any involvement in this plot, his name is again stuck to another major F1 scandal, albeit unwittingly this time, coming two years after the McLaren/Ferrari data theft case.

As for the result of the Singapore Grand Prix, at the weekend FIA president Max Mosley said that its too late to change the results of the race.

With Briatore and McLaren’s Ron Dennis having now departed the scene in similar circumstances, there is only Sir Frank Williams of F1′s original big beasts, left in the sport. He has played a different game from his peers in recent years, sided with the FIA over the breakaway and not been a leading rebel in the FOTA breakaway.