So finally after what seemed like endless weeks of meetings, legal threats and press statements it looks as if a solution has been found to the row that had threatened to split Formula One. The meeting of the World Motorsport Council in Paris yesterday finally achieved what the previous two months had failed to produce - a solution that satisfied all sides and ends the threat of a breakaway series by the Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA) being set-up.
This ensures that Ferrari, McLaren and the established names on the grid will be racing in the series next year. The catalyst for the row was a plan by Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) president Max Mosley to introduce for the 2010 season a £40million (Dh243m) budget cap in a bid to cut costs in the sport and also encourage new teams to become involved. While FOTA members were not averse to lowering their budgets after seeing Honda's shock withdrawal at the end of 2008, they were angered at being ordered to slash costs by massive amounts, plus the threat that if they did not accept the voluntary budget cap they would be at a big technical disadvantage to those who did, thus creating the possibility of a two-tier championship.
Consequently two deadlines for entries to the 2010 championship came and went with only Williams and Force India signing up unconditionally, with the remaining eight refusing to join until the budget cap was scrapped. But during the discussions it was becoming clear the row was about more than reducing costs. The teams were tiring of the autocratic manner of Mosley, and had been frustrated at just how little say they were having in the running of a show that they were the entertainers in.
It is unclear how real the threat of a breakaway series was, as while the teams would have been in charge, it would have taken a Herculean effort to have rules, circuits, and everything else needed to prepare for a new championship to be up and running from next March. In all likelihood it was a bluff necessary to ensure that FOTA got what they wanted, which they appear to have done in the end with no budget cap, cost-cutting in their own hands, and the end of Mosley from October after he confirmed yesterday he would not stand for a fifth term as president.
While the full facts of what has been agreed will emerge in the next few days, the scenario still does throw up some questions. The most significant one is that Campos Grand Prix, Manor Grand Prix and Team US F1, the three new teams accepted by the FIA, signed up with the idea of their budget cap. How the fact there won't be one goes down with them and whether it affects their participation now will be of some interest.
Quite how the teams will work with the FIA on lowering their costs will be also worth watching with interest. But yesterday's announcement will be remembered for not only ensuring the status quo in Formula One stays the same, but also triggering the end of an era for Mosley as FIA president, a position he has held since 1993. Mosley's reign has often been a controversial one, but if his legacy is sacrificing an attempt at a fifth term in the position to ensure the future of Formula One then his exit should be viewed as a noble one.
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