ISTANBUL, Turkey (Reuters) – Formula One teams would consider setting up a rival series only as a last resort, bosses said yesterday.
The Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) is engaged in an impasse with the governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) over next year’s regulations, with some – including champions Ferrari – threatening to walk away from the sport if they are not rewritten.
“We believe that commonsense will prevail and that should our (2010) entries be rejected … we need to sit down and discuss the next steps,” Toyota motorsport president John Howett told a news conference at the Turkish Grand Prix.
“We do have a number of scenarios, and scenario planning, and the worst-case scenario would be to have to establish our own series.”
With the exception of Williams and Force India, all the teams have submitted only conditional entries for 2010 by the May 29 deadline and have said they will be invalid if the terms are not met by June 12.
FIA president Max Mosley suggested this week that the existing teams could go off and set up their own series if they did not want to race under the FIA’s rules.
The governing body plans to introduce an optional 40 million pound ($65.10 million) budget cap to keep teams in the sport and encourage new ones to enter at a time of global recession.
FOTA, chaired by Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo, has said the plan would create an unacceptable two-tier championship.
NO WAR
Renault team principal, Flavio Briatore, who has said the French manufacturer cannot sign up to the 2010 rules as published, made clear that the teams wanted to come to an agreement with the FIA.
“It is not a war. We don’t want any war,” said the Italian.
“We have the responsibility for the employees that we have, for the fans, for the supporters of Formula One. We don’t want war with anybody.
“It’s not nice when someone says Renault are not in F1 anymore, BMW or Toyota are not in F1 anymore.
“We don’t want a war with Mr Mosley especially … we don’t want a war with (Formula One supremo Bernie) Ecclestone,” added Briatore. “We want a better Formula One, a better show and better entertainment.
“If there is a war, everybody loses. We have the white flag; we are sitting there and just accept the heavy bombardment we are getting.”
Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali agreed that it was important to remain constructive.
“There is no-one who wants to have any fight with anyone, because this is not at least on our side the position we want to take. We need to find solutions.
“We want to work together to find a way out of this moment that is really not good for Formula One.”
Briatore said many of the would-be new entrants, with at least 10 known to have submitted entries, were just “shell companies” that offered no guarantees and could prove destructive for the sport.
