F1 in the dog house again after FOTA walk

The FIA and FOTA are about to spoil a second Grand Prix in a row after a pre race weekend meeting came to an abrupt end when the 8 members of FOTA walked out.

They were told they had no voting rights over the 2010 championship and the money negotiations as they were not confirmed entrants. Flabbergasted, the FOTA members and rest of the world believed that on the 24th June, the issue was put to bed and an agreement found over next years cost reductions.

Apparently not and its now down to Williams, Force India and the 3 new kids on the block, Manor, Campos and USF1 to agree to the rule changes that FOTA pushed for otherwise we have a really sticky situation that will involve the FIA senate.

There’s a lot more technical analysis on this story around the web as this all happened yesterday and quite frankly, the gritty details of it all annoy me.

Most F1 fans are siding with FOTA and so am I. I really don’t think it’s outrageous to think F1 should follow the same rules next year as they do this year. The current technical regulations have wrong footed most of the teams and it’s only Brawn GP and Red Bull Racing that hit the ground running in 2009. So for the rest of the teams the focus has to be on getting winning again and remaining competitive in F1. If some teams fail in this, their F1 futures are very much on the line.

So it’s quite reasonable in my view to let these teams carry on with what they do best, trying to win world championships and make it a better show for fans.

A budget cap is a huge step to make in such a big sport anyway and the time frame from it being proposed to being pushed through was incredibly short. Unreasonably short in FOTAs view.

Just when everyone thought we could concentrate on the racing again and try and enjoy Jenson Buttons attempt on the drivers title, the bombshell and walk out happened. The press got hold of it, and now a political war has spilled out into the papers and web columns once again.

It's embarrassing isn’t it. Last night after a good few beers down the pub, my mate in Australia sent me the story as a link. Here is our little exchange we had over gmail chat about the mess F1 has fallen into once again.

Warning, some of the language is a little bit… not included in the dictionary shall we say:

Daniel: http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,12433_5421568,00.html

  oh dear

 me: i no

  ridiculous sport

 Daniel: its just a mess

00:11 me: it is

  whats worse is people like you flagging it up and thinking its shit

00:12 thats not against u personally, but the category of fans you fall into

 Daniel: well it is

 me: this is a formula 1 inner circle issue, not man on the street who quite likes formula 1, its bollocks

 Daniel: it would be like man u, arsenal, chelsea & liverpool saying they wont be in the PL

00:13 me: yer how stupid does that sound? unthinkable

 Daniel: but would never happen because of the history

 me: a sporting format should be agreed well before it comes into affect, not on deadlines and what not

00:14 Daniel: similar thing would be if they premier league put a transfer limit on clubs

  but it would have to happen world wide

00:15 to be fair on teams competing in europe

 me: exactly

00:16 its so daft when you look on a world wide sporting scale

  as a hardcore f1 fan, this sort of stuff really eats away at me, its embarassing and frustrating

00:18 Daniel: it wouild be shite if they pulled out to be honest - but then if the elite teams had their own championship - that would be pretty cool too

00:24 me: its just too much to think about

  f1 should be f1, the same teams, with a few new ones, nice

00:25 not meeting walk outs in the press

00:29 Daniel: true - teams are too powerful now though

00:30 me: well the teams also make the sport, if there arent the 8 members of FOTA, f1 loses its appeal - fact

00:31 no one in the middle east gives a shot about othet than ferrari

  its a global brand thats very important to them

  for them not to race in a top category is major

  this stuff needs to be sorted out behind closed doors

  stop press releasing bad news

00:32 i have an email, from FOTA themselves saying:

  As a result of these statements, the FOTA representatives at the subsequent Technical Working Group were not able to exercise their rights and therefore had no option other than to terminate their participation.

  this should be private stuff