The latest episode in the F1 ego battle takes place today, with little room left for negotiation, writes JUSTIN HYNES
IN THE wake of his first British Grand Prix win last weekend, Sebastian Vettel tried hard to insist that his total domination was harder than it looked, that his 15-second winning advantage over team-mate Marl Webber had been a tough workout. It wasn’t.
The race itself was a stroll for a driver at the wheel of a car perfectly suited to the track and conditions. If it was a titanic battle you were after, you were better off looking towards the paddock, where the latest episode in the struggle for the future of Formula One was getting bitter.
Last Friday the Formula One Teams Association (Fota) dropped the bombshell that, because no common ground could be found over Max Mosley’s contentious £40 million budget cap for 2010, they would next year split from F1 and forge their own championship.
Mosley responded with the threat of legal action then swiftly retreated, making conciliatory noises. The teams – Ferrari, McLaren, Renault, BMW and Toyota, Brawn, Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso – shrugged off the overture. Preparations for the new series were underway. After months of “he said, she said”, the gloves were off.
Today, in Paris, the bell will sound for the next round of the prize fight. At a meeting of the World Motorsport Council, the most powerful arm of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA)’s sporting authority, Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo is likely to call for Mosley’s resignation, in a bid to end hostilities.
But that outcome is unlikely. Mosley, entrenched in the corridors of power and with the cowed backing of member associations, is unlikely to be driven from office so easily. The meeting, heated though it may be, is simply the next phase in a battle that has, at its heart, control, power, money and, ultimately, personalities.
Control lies in the formation of regulations which, since the last Concorde agreement between teams and F1 governors lapsed, have been imposed unilaterally by the FIA, often at great odds to how the teams wish to race a sport they plough billions into.
Power lies with F1 heads, now focused solely on Mosley’s ally Bernie Ecclestone, who has dragged F1 away from markets the manufacturer-backed teams wish to pursue. And finally, the financial bone of contention is in Ecclestone selling the commercial rights of the sport to venture capital company CVC, a move that has effectively funnelled the vast income generated by the sport away from participants and towards a company wishing only to recoup its outlay. A rancorous split was inevitable. And despite conciliatory noises from Mosley – the FIA boss insisting “we would rather talk than litigate” – Sunday night saw Fota members dig their heels in further.
Renault’s Flavio Briatore scoffed at the notion of a resolution, saying plans for the breakaway series would be revealed soon. “We will have it ready in the next few weeks,” he said. “We want a Formula One championship organised by Fota.”
The question is: what happens now? The short answer is: nothing concrete. Despite today’s meeting, negotiations between teams and the FIA are set to continue for the foreseeable future. Breaking up an established brand like F1 is in no one’s interest, and a breakaway series is a last resort, even if such a thing were possible – which is denied by Ecclestone.
“We organise the venues, which don’t cost the teams a penny,” he said. “All they have to do is pitch up. . . and race in front of a worldwide television audience that I have set up and keep going. The bottom line is, they can’t afford to set up a rival championship.”
That is highly debatable. Rumours at Silverstone suggest Fota’s plans have been in development for some months, with Briatore leading the charge.
The Renault boss, for so long closely allied to Ecclestone, is seen by some as the 78-year-old’s commercial successor, a strange position for a man who is deeply involved in business beyond motorsport with the F1 supremo, the pair jointly owning QPR football club.
But all is fair in love and war, and the always rebellious Italian is believed to be spearheading negotiations with circuits, promoters and television partners for the new series. And in the Italian’s opinion, today’s meeting is unlikely to influence Fota’s position. “I don’t think the world council will change anything,” he said. “We have tried to compromise. We have had the door closed in our face.”
As such, Fota members will reconvene tomorrow to discuss both the fallout of the WMSC meeting and further develop a new series.
“I would say [time is] very short,” Toyota motorsport president John Howett said on Monday. “If we start with the actions we intend to, to move from a conceptual discussion to implementation phase, I think we will start to make commitments that then become very difficult to come out of.”
Those commitments would involve new deals with television, major sporting partners such as Bridgestone, circuits and the formulation of rules. The latter though, according to Brawn GP chief Nick Fry, would be straightforward, with a coherent set of rules already drafted the last time manufacturers mulled a split some four years ago, then under the banner of the Grand Prix Manufacturers’ Association.
A potential calendar has also been drafted which features many events currently axed from the schedule as a result of Ecclestone’s pursuit of new markets and financial rewards from the Far and Middle East. Including locations such as Montreal, Indianapolis, and more races in the sport’s European heartland, the swing is consciously back to key markets in which the manufacturers sell road vehicles.
Resolution looks far off. Although Mosley continues to insist Fota’s position is mere “posturing”, it seems that, behind the rhetoric, there is substance. The ball is in Mosley’s court.
The FIA president, though outwardly resolute, is now clearly on the back foot. The collapse of the FIA’s premium sporting brand would be disastrous for the organisation’s credibility and with Fota unified, he must bargain for an armistice.
That, ultimately, will mean ceding a portion of regulatory power to the teams, something anathema to one who has held the reins for so long. If ego dictates that is not possible, Formula One as we know it will surely cease to exist.