Formula One's Future at The Verge Of a Schism

Edward Barett by Contributor Written on June 20, 2009
NORTHAMPTON, UNITED KINGDOM - JUNE 20:  Sebastian Vettel of Germany and Red Bull Racing is seen during qualifying for the British Formula One Grand Prix at Silverstone on June 20, 2009 in Northampton, England.  (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images) (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

As we land into another fast-speed weekend, this time at the mythic Silverstone, we must confess ourselves astounded at the magnitude of the latest news that emerge from the F1 world, and to what they could imply in the future of the top category of motorsport.

Has been quite a while since we've first heard of this rumor: it began as a complain. Simply just another complain filed by Ferrari, the most successful team in F1 history and much probably one of the most affected in this whole decade of rule variations, against FIA governing body, a complain that some days later transformed into a formal menace.

What we've first thought, it was: oh, here they go again, these guys. Another soap opera. Ferrari is really losing its nerve this season; their worst start ever, problems with both cars and drivers and of course all this is simply frustrating for them. 

But as weeks passed, the threat began to take shape, and started running down the hill. And to our utmost surprise, it continued gaining weight, the team's voices raising louder, the ice ball getting bigger and bigger, to the point that practically the whole FOTA (Formula One Team Association) has joined together (except for a few minor teams) in this cause against the FIA.

And if we are to credit the latest news about this subject, F1 is at the very brink of falling into a unprecedented and difficult situation. Schismatic voices sound loud enough among the meeting rooms and corridors in Paris and London, and we now start to believe in a possibility that hardly we have thought before it could ever happen.

But what is all this mess about?

The apple of discord of all this row, is FIA's head authority determination to cap the team's budget for next season in 40 million pounds, per team.

Whatever reasons has Mosley to stand obstinately firm in his viewpoint against 85% of the teams in F1, we've frankly failed to understand them. He says that this will help low budget teams to compete in the same conditions with the most powerful ones, and that in the crisis times we actually live in, it will aid to preserve the financial health of current F1 teams, and keep F1 competitive while enabling potential candidates to enter the category.

Come’on man, an overwhelming majority of the teams is against the measure. Where is the common sense? Is really so hard to search for another way to achieve your aim without unilaterally imposing your position, maybe a cross-subsidy or kind of? We are tempted to believe that there's something more involved in such an attitude.

Mosley's moral authority and leadership as the head of the FIA suffered a fatal blow when he appeared at the centre of a sex scandal involving prostitutes dressed as concentration camp prisoners a year ago, and some of the teams and chiefs in F1 clearly asked for his head at that time. 

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written on June 20, 2009 Opinion

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