Teams stick to their guns, FIA takes legal action

| Sat, 06/20/2009 - 03:02

The Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) has made its decision in regard to next season and is not interested in further negotiations, Renault principal Flavio Briatore said Friday.

Speaking on the sidelines of the first day of practice for Sunday's British Grand Prix, Briatore added ''there is no one we want to talk to now. The World Motor Sport Council will meet on Wednesday and there the FOTA chief (Ferrari Chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo) will illustrate out position, which is the one we adopted last night''.

FOTA said Thursday night that its members would not take part in the next Formula 1 season and, instead, would prepare their own series for 2010.

This came at the end of a long tug-of-war with the international racing federation FIA over rules for next season, including a proposed budget cap and two-tier regulations, and the governance of the sport in general.

Bernie Ecclestone, whose group controls the commercial rights to Formula 1, met with FIA Chairman Max Mosley in an apparent attempt to get him allow for further negotiations but with no success.

FIA on Friday issued a statement saying that its lawyers had examined the FOTA threat to set up a rival series and had decided to take immediate legal action.

It also singled out Ferrari which FIA claims has an obligation to race in Formula 1 based on a previous agreement and thus could not back out.

Many observers see the dispute between FIA and FOTA as a power struggle between Mosley and Montezemolo with the FIA boss accusing Ferrari of undermining any possible compromise.

In its statement, FIA said that ''the actions of FOTA as a whole, and Ferrari in particular, amount to serious violations of law including wilful interference with contractual relations, direct breaches of Ferrari's legal obligations and a grave violation of competition law''.

''FIA will be issuing legal proceedings without delay,'' the statement added.

The racing federation was to have issued its full list of teams set to take part in the 2010 championship on Friday, or latest on Saturday, but FIA said in its statement that this would be ''put on hold while FIA asserts its legal rights''.

A week ago FIA issued a provisional list of the teams set to take part in the 2010 season and it had all the 2009 teams. However, FIA said that Brawn GP, McLaren, Renault, BMW Sauber and Toyota had to drop the conditions they set to take part in next year's season by June 19 decision in order to be allowed in.

Ferrari, as well as Red Bull and Toro Rosso, had set the same conditions as the other FOTA members but FIA said they were automatically signed up on the grounds that they had signed earlier accords which obliged them to compete.

The Italian team has contested this, claiming that 'automatic' signing up was unacceptable, and has already taken FIA to court over its alleged right to veto rule changes.

Negotiations between FOTA and FIA this past week failed to produce an acceptable compromise on Thursday FOTA said ''the teams cannot continue to compromise on the fundamental values of the sport and have declined to alter their original conditional entries to the 2010 World Championship''.

''These teams therefore have no alternative other than to commence the preparation for a new championship which reflects the values of the participants and partners. This series will have transparent governance and one set of regulations''.

Although many observers see Ecclestone siding with Mosley, Ferrari and FOTA appear to have the backing of the sport's leading drivers and fans.

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