Post by QPR Report on Jun 19, 2009 21:24:33 GMT
Earlier thread from Friday can be read here
qprreport.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=4463
ITV Com F1 crisis: The key questions
Friday, 19 June 2009 00:00
FOTA’s momentous announcement that it plans to set up its own championship next year has met with a predictably unyielding FIA response, and the law suits now look set to fly between Formula 1’s governing body and its big-name teams.
After a day of political turmoil that was extraordinary even by F1 standards, itv.com/f1 columnist James Allen analyses the latest situation and pinpoints the key issues that will determine whether the breakaway plan comes to fruition, or whether a compromise will ultimately be thrashed out.
Tranquillity begins to settle on the paddock as people drift off into the evening to absorb everything that has happened today.
Overnight FOTA announced that it was launching plans for a breakaway.
This heavy decision was reached after a six-hour meeting at Renault’s Enstone headquarters, roughly 30 minutes drive from Silverstone.
Apparently the team principals toasted their historic decision with a glass of champagne, offered by Renault boss Flavio Briatore.
The next morning Briatore arrived at the circuit with Bernie Ecclestone, as he does most days at the grands prix, the two being firm friends. Such is the way of F1.
Mid-morning Max Mosley arrived and made his way straight to Ecclestone’s motorhome for a discussion.
He said nothing to the media at the point, insisting that his response would come in the form of a statement later in the day.
Mosley has suggested in recent months that the teams are welcome to start their own breakaway series and that F1 can survive without Ferrari.
By this evening the FIA statement indicated that he was heading for the law courts to keep Ferrari in F1 and to sue FOTA for “serious violations of law, including wilful interference with contractual relations…and a grave violation of competition law”.
Ferrari responded by pointing out that they have already launched arbitration proceedings against the FIA in a civil court in Lausanne, deemed competent to hear such actions by the Concorde Agreement. This action was launched last Monday.
So the key questions are these: Do FOTA really mean it? Are Ferrari contractually bound to the FIA? And what is Bernie Ecclestone’s next move?
The mood among the teams is quite sombre, but there is no doubt that they are serious about the decision they have taken.
That doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t prefer to find a solution and race in F1. After all the greats of the sport have won the Formula 1 world championship, any other series would have no history and no reference points.
You can be sure that if they did break away Bernie would make it very difficult for them to leverage their past glories in F1 in the context of a new series.
Ross Brawn has sided with FOTA, which is brave considering that his team’s income is entirely derived from F1 racing, unlike manufacturers or company-owned teams like Red Bull.
Brawn feels that his team would not even be on the grid without FOTA. But he has grounds to be anxious about participating in a series run by manufacturers – you need only look back at the double diffuser row to see that.
Logistically, organising a breakaway would be challenging, but the teams are quite confident that it could be done in time for next season.
Ferrari owns Mugello, while tracks like Imola, Silverstone, Indianapolis and Montreal would all pay a reasonable fee to host the best drivers and the best cars.
It would be interesting to see how they set up their rule-making and arbitration process, again in the light of the double diffuser row.
There have been lots of deadlines lately but the real deadline is next March, when the new season starts – and the smart money is still on Ferrari, McLaren, Brawn and most of the other current teams being on the F1 grid.
The second question can really only be tested in a court of law and Ferrari has already launched that process. They are seeking arbitration to protect their rights under the agreement they signed in 2005.
One presumes that the outcome of this will be a judgement on whether the contract with the FIA and FOM is still legally binding.
This is key because neither series has much of a future without Ferrari, as that is where the TV companies in particular would spend their money.
Finally, what of Bernie Ecclestone? The FIA owns the F1 world championship and he has been granted the commercial rights to F1 for 100 years.
He has already indicated that he would take extensive legal action in the event of a breakaway, as it would leave him struggling to fulfil his contracts with circuits and TV companies as well as firms who have licences like F1 gaming and phone applications, which use team and driver names.
There are some in F1 who wonder whether he might jump ship and side with the teams in a new series.
But F1 as it is today is largely his creation and all the effort has gone into building F1 as a brand. You cannot imagine him starting again.
Everyone hopes and prays that this is just some high-level negotiating tactic and that common sense will prevail.
But whether F1 can move forward will all the same protagonists in place is debatable.
The FIA has put a hold on things while it asserts its legal rights.
This should lead to a cooling-off period, although next Wednesday’s FIA World Council meeting could be a flashpoint if the teams try to unseat Mosley, as is being suggested in some quarters.
In briefings this evening Mosley has indicated that he will not walk away until the job is complete and that he feels the FOTA breakaway has no chance of success.
Hopefully tomorrow will be a calmer day where we can all focus on the racing, which is shaping up to be pretty good.
www.itv-f1.com/Feature.aspx?Type=James_Allen&id=46176
Financial Times
Mosley counters driving ambition
By Roger Blitz in London and James Allen at Silverstone
Published: June 19 2009 08:32 | Last updated: June 19 2009 20:17
Formula One’s future hung in the balance on Friday after Max Mosley countered the dramatic decision of eight of its teams to launch a breakaway series by serving them with writs and accusing them of breaking their contracts.
The simmering feud between Mr Mosley and the Formula One Teams Association, led by Ferrari, burst wide open, with team principals making clear that they could no longer deal with the president of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, and Mr Mosley directing his legal firepower at the Italians.
Fota insiders acknowledged that the worst crisis in F1’s 60-year history was more than just about Mr Mosley’s plans for a £40m budget cap on teams, a move he says is necessary to prevent a “financial arms race” but one which threatens the business models of teams such as Ferrari and McLaren.
After years of being politically outmanoeuvred by Mr Mosley and F1 commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone, and feeling short-changed from the share-out of revenues coming into the sport, the teams decided at a six-hour meeting at the Renault team headquarters in Oxfordshire to make their stand.
“They came to the conclusion they have had enough,” said one person present at the meeting. The teams concluded the meeting in the early hours of Friday with a glass of champagne brought out by Flavio Briatore, Renault’s team principal.As motor-racing fans descended on Silverstone for practice before Sunday’s British Grand Prix, the dominant question was whether the eight teams – Brawn GP, Ferrari, McLaren, Renault, Toyota, BMW Sauber, Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso – would be able to carry through on their intention to leave F1.
A breakway series would be difficult, but not impossible, to assemble. In the teams’ favour is about a dozen race circuits around the world, rejected by Mr Ecclestone as obsolete, that could host the series.
The teams own the drivers and, according to the team representatives, their sponsors were informed of their breakaway announcement and were supportive.
But there have been no discussions about a breakaway series with broadcasters, who through their rights packages provide the sport with much of its revenue.
The eight teams carry not just the biggest names in motorsport but huge financial clout. According to Formulamoney, F1’s annual financial report, they contribute $2.2bn (£1.3bn) to the sport in sponsorship, supplier deals and team owner contributions, amounting to 47 per cent of the total revenue generated by F1 last year.
The crisis has a large audience of worried bystanders with vested interests. The biggest of all is CVC, the private equity group that holds the majority stake in F1’s commercial rights and other parts of the F1 roadshow, such as track advertising and hospitality.
According to Formula money, F1 requires in the region of $550m in revenue to meet costs and liabilities. But in the paddock at Silverstone, talk was rife about whether circuits and sponsors would stick with the Mosley-Ecclestone F1 series or follow the break-away teams.
Mr Mosley faces a formidable wall of opposition from the teams. His plan to line up a series of new teams to replace the likes of McLaren and Brawn is starting to fray after N-Technology and Lola withdrew their entries and Prodrive added conditions to its bid.
Fota is also hoping that by appealing to the sport’s fans it can win the PR battle with its F1 nemesis.
A scheduled meeting of the FIA world motorsport council on Wednesday, which was meant to ratify the 2010 F1 list of teams and the controversial package of rules, now represents an opportunity for FIA members to challenge the authority of its president.
Ferrari said on Friday that it had already sought arbitration proceedings against the FIA to protect its contractual rights.
Mr Ecclestone, the man who really holds the cards in this high-stakes, high-speed duel, was uncharacteristically silent. Many in the paddock believe that whoever he sides with will end up victorious.
Mr Mosley is confident the breakaway will crumble in the face of his lawyers. He was making clear last night that not only did he think Fota was unable to launch a rival series but that they would be back in the F1 fold.
One FIA insider said: “Max has no plans to leave the work he has begun unfinished.”
www.ft.com/cms/s/0/73219ee4-5ca1-11de-9d42-00144feabdc0.html
qprreport.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=4463
ITV Com F1 crisis: The key questions
Friday, 19 June 2009 00:00
FOTA’s momentous announcement that it plans to set up its own championship next year has met with a predictably unyielding FIA response, and the law suits now look set to fly between Formula 1’s governing body and its big-name teams.
After a day of political turmoil that was extraordinary even by F1 standards, itv.com/f1 columnist James Allen analyses the latest situation and pinpoints the key issues that will determine whether the breakaway plan comes to fruition, or whether a compromise will ultimately be thrashed out.
Tranquillity begins to settle on the paddock as people drift off into the evening to absorb everything that has happened today.
Overnight FOTA announced that it was launching plans for a breakaway.
This heavy decision was reached after a six-hour meeting at Renault’s Enstone headquarters, roughly 30 minutes drive from Silverstone.
Apparently the team principals toasted their historic decision with a glass of champagne, offered by Renault boss Flavio Briatore.
The next morning Briatore arrived at the circuit with Bernie Ecclestone, as he does most days at the grands prix, the two being firm friends. Such is the way of F1.
Mid-morning Max Mosley arrived and made his way straight to Ecclestone’s motorhome for a discussion.
He said nothing to the media at the point, insisting that his response would come in the form of a statement later in the day.
Mosley has suggested in recent months that the teams are welcome to start their own breakaway series and that F1 can survive without Ferrari.
By this evening the FIA statement indicated that he was heading for the law courts to keep Ferrari in F1 and to sue FOTA for “serious violations of law, including wilful interference with contractual relations…and a grave violation of competition law”.
Ferrari responded by pointing out that they have already launched arbitration proceedings against the FIA in a civil court in Lausanne, deemed competent to hear such actions by the Concorde Agreement. This action was launched last Monday.
So the key questions are these: Do FOTA really mean it? Are Ferrari contractually bound to the FIA? And what is Bernie Ecclestone’s next move?
The mood among the teams is quite sombre, but there is no doubt that they are serious about the decision they have taken.
That doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t prefer to find a solution and race in F1. After all the greats of the sport have won the Formula 1 world championship, any other series would have no history and no reference points.
You can be sure that if they did break away Bernie would make it very difficult for them to leverage their past glories in F1 in the context of a new series.
Ross Brawn has sided with FOTA, which is brave considering that his team’s income is entirely derived from F1 racing, unlike manufacturers or company-owned teams like Red Bull.
Brawn feels that his team would not even be on the grid without FOTA. But he has grounds to be anxious about participating in a series run by manufacturers – you need only look back at the double diffuser row to see that.
Logistically, organising a breakaway would be challenging, but the teams are quite confident that it could be done in time for next season.
Ferrari owns Mugello, while tracks like Imola, Silverstone, Indianapolis and Montreal would all pay a reasonable fee to host the best drivers and the best cars.
It would be interesting to see how they set up their rule-making and arbitration process, again in the light of the double diffuser row.
There have been lots of deadlines lately but the real deadline is next March, when the new season starts – and the smart money is still on Ferrari, McLaren, Brawn and most of the other current teams being on the F1 grid.
The second question can really only be tested in a court of law and Ferrari has already launched that process. They are seeking arbitration to protect their rights under the agreement they signed in 2005.
One presumes that the outcome of this will be a judgement on whether the contract with the FIA and FOM is still legally binding.
This is key because neither series has much of a future without Ferrari, as that is where the TV companies in particular would spend their money.
Finally, what of Bernie Ecclestone? The FIA owns the F1 world championship and he has been granted the commercial rights to F1 for 100 years.
He has already indicated that he would take extensive legal action in the event of a breakaway, as it would leave him struggling to fulfil his contracts with circuits and TV companies as well as firms who have licences like F1 gaming and phone applications, which use team and driver names.
There are some in F1 who wonder whether he might jump ship and side with the teams in a new series.
But F1 as it is today is largely his creation and all the effort has gone into building F1 as a brand. You cannot imagine him starting again.
Everyone hopes and prays that this is just some high-level negotiating tactic and that common sense will prevail.
But whether F1 can move forward will all the same protagonists in place is debatable.
The FIA has put a hold on things while it asserts its legal rights.
This should lead to a cooling-off period, although next Wednesday’s FIA World Council meeting could be a flashpoint if the teams try to unseat Mosley, as is being suggested in some quarters.
In briefings this evening Mosley has indicated that he will not walk away until the job is complete and that he feels the FOTA breakaway has no chance of success.
Hopefully tomorrow will be a calmer day where we can all focus on the racing, which is shaping up to be pretty good.
www.itv-f1.com/Feature.aspx?Type=James_Allen&id=46176
Financial Times
Mosley counters driving ambition
By Roger Blitz in London and James Allen at Silverstone
Published: June 19 2009 08:32 | Last updated: June 19 2009 20:17
Formula One’s future hung in the balance on Friday after Max Mosley countered the dramatic decision of eight of its teams to launch a breakaway series by serving them with writs and accusing them of breaking their contracts.
The simmering feud between Mr Mosley and the Formula One Teams Association, led by Ferrari, burst wide open, with team principals making clear that they could no longer deal with the president of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, and Mr Mosley directing his legal firepower at the Italians.
Fota insiders acknowledged that the worst crisis in F1’s 60-year history was more than just about Mr Mosley’s plans for a £40m budget cap on teams, a move he says is necessary to prevent a “financial arms race” but one which threatens the business models of teams such as Ferrari and McLaren.
After years of being politically outmanoeuvred by Mr Mosley and F1 commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone, and feeling short-changed from the share-out of revenues coming into the sport, the teams decided at a six-hour meeting at the Renault team headquarters in Oxfordshire to make their stand.
“They came to the conclusion they have had enough,” said one person present at the meeting. The teams concluded the meeting in the early hours of Friday with a glass of champagne brought out by Flavio Briatore, Renault’s team principal.As motor-racing fans descended on Silverstone for practice before Sunday’s British Grand Prix, the dominant question was whether the eight teams – Brawn GP, Ferrari, McLaren, Renault, Toyota, BMW Sauber, Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso – would be able to carry through on their intention to leave F1.
A breakway series would be difficult, but not impossible, to assemble. In the teams’ favour is about a dozen race circuits around the world, rejected by Mr Ecclestone as obsolete, that could host the series.
The teams own the drivers and, according to the team representatives, their sponsors were informed of their breakaway announcement and were supportive.
But there have been no discussions about a breakaway series with broadcasters, who through their rights packages provide the sport with much of its revenue.
The eight teams carry not just the biggest names in motorsport but huge financial clout. According to Formulamoney, F1’s annual financial report, they contribute $2.2bn (£1.3bn) to the sport in sponsorship, supplier deals and team owner contributions, amounting to 47 per cent of the total revenue generated by F1 last year.
The crisis has a large audience of worried bystanders with vested interests. The biggest of all is CVC, the private equity group that holds the majority stake in F1’s commercial rights and other parts of the F1 roadshow, such as track advertising and hospitality.
According to Formula money, F1 requires in the region of $550m in revenue to meet costs and liabilities. But in the paddock at Silverstone, talk was rife about whether circuits and sponsors would stick with the Mosley-Ecclestone F1 series or follow the break-away teams.
Mr Mosley faces a formidable wall of opposition from the teams. His plan to line up a series of new teams to replace the likes of McLaren and Brawn is starting to fray after N-Technology and Lola withdrew their entries and Prodrive added conditions to its bid.
Fota is also hoping that by appealing to the sport’s fans it can win the PR battle with its F1 nemesis.
A scheduled meeting of the FIA world motorsport council on Wednesday, which was meant to ratify the 2010 F1 list of teams and the controversial package of rules, now represents an opportunity for FIA members to challenge the authority of its president.
Ferrari said on Friday that it had already sought arbitration proceedings against the FIA to protect its contractual rights.
Mr Ecclestone, the man who really holds the cards in this high-stakes, high-speed duel, was uncharacteristically silent. Many in the paddock believe that whoever he sides with will end up victorious.
Mr Mosley is confident the breakaway will crumble in the face of his lawyers. He was making clear last night that not only did he think Fota was unable to launch a rival series but that they would be back in the F1 fold.
One FIA insider said: “Max has no plans to leave the work he has begun unfinished.”
www.ft.com/cms/s/0/73219ee4-5ca1-11de-9d42-00144feabdc0.html
Victory seemingly goes to Mr. Briatore! Now that's the Briatore we expected to be succeeding at QPR. 