MOTOR SPORT FORMULA ONE CHAMPIONSHIP: THE ONGOING struggle for supremacy between Formula One's governing body the FIA and the sport's major players, the Formula One Teams' Association, took a further twist in Istanbul yesterday with the revelation that Force India are likely to be expelled from the teams' coalition today after it emerged the team had submitted an unconditional entry for the 2010 season.
Last week the FOTA teams submitted a block entry for next season conditional on the FIA’s proposed €45.7 million budget cap and other rule changes being scrapped. They had also insisted the FIA seek a solution to the impasse and sign up to a new Concorde Agreement between F1’s powerbrokers before June 12th or risk the possibility of the teams withdrawing from next season’s championship. The Williams team had already broken ranks and submitted an unconditional entry for 2010 and it appears a further rift in FOTA ranks has emerged.
“It is likely they may be suspended,” Toyota team principal John Howett said in Istanbul yesterday, ahead of tomorrow’s Turkish Grand Prix. “I haven’t really had the opportunity to speak to (Force India owner) Vijay (Mallya) directly, but he has committed, in accordance with FOTA, a conditional entry but apparently, due to commercial issues, totally unrelated to another team or support, they felt obliged because of other binding legal activities due to funding or other issues, to submit an official entry.
“He will be here tomorrow and I will speak to him, and I have to say it is the intention of FOTA to suspend them based on a face-to-face discussion with Vijay.”
Force India subsequently issued a short statement admitting they had revised their entry. “While Force India is broadly in agreement with the FOTA objectives, commercial obligations have demanded that (the team) review its conditional entry. This has been done today with full transparency between all parties.”
The news of another defection is unlikely to deter the hard-line dissenters, particularly Toyota and Ferrari, from continuing to pursue Max Mosley for change and Howett confirmed yesterday if a solution is not found before the June 12th, the FOTA teams will consider a breakaway series. “We believe common sense will prevail but if the (FOTA) entries are rejected, we need to sit down and discuss the next steps,” he said.
“We do have a number of scenarios and the worst case would be to have to establish our own series, but I think FOTA have a list of scenarios (prepared) based on the response of the federation.”
Renault’s Flavio Briatore, though, offered a partial olive branch, insisting FOTA were not at war with the FIA. “Everybody in the past two weeks says there is a war,” he said, “There is no war. What we want is governance. We want a system that was always in Formula One. We want a Formula One commission and we want a Concorde Agreement. We want stability. We want to be in Formula One,” he added. “We want to be there in 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015 . . . We don’t understand why there is panicking (from the FIA) that there will be no teams in Formula One next year.”
The track action too proved to be as unpredictable as the political manoeuvrings. The Istanbul circuit is little used outside the Formula One weekend and most of the drivers struggled for grip on the “green” surface in free practice, with championship leader Jenson Button most affected. “We’ve had a tough first day trying to find a good balance with the car,” said the Brawn GP driver who ended the day in an uncharacteristically low 12th place.
Quickest yesterday was McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen, the Finn edging out Renault’s Fernando Alonso, with Robert Kubica an encouraging third in a car this weekend fitted with a double diffuser for the first time.
Rounding out the top five was Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, though his time was set in the opening minutes of the afternoon session, the German forced to sit out the bulk of the time in the garage after a mechanical failure sidelined him just five minutes in.
