FOTA's Broken Arrow: The Beast Lives

Throughout history, it has been commonplace for great battle victories to soon become hollow and meaningless, irrelevant to the final outcome.

In The Hundred Years War, the technological superiority of the English (actually Welsh) longbow enabled a succession of English kings to inflict massive defeats on much larger French armies. From Crécy to Agincourt, clouds of arrows wreaked terrible slaughter, ending the age of the mounted knight and the crossbow, but failing to force a decision in favour of the battle victors.

It would be possible to give numerous other examples of victories that proved illusory, but I seek only to make the point that people and causes never just give up when they lose a battle, and that brings me to the F1 war.

FOTA and the FIA met on the field of battle in Paris on June 23-24, 2009, the outcome being a crushing victory for FOTA.

Or was it?

Ostensibly, the war waged by FOTA was to seize control of a) the regulation of F1, and b) the commercial income of F1, from the FIA and FOM respectively. As a symbol of victory, they also wanted the FIA's commanding general sent into exile.

FOTA went into war with a weapon to which their enemies had no answer, the threat of a breakaway series.

With 80 percent of the teams and drivers in the FOTA ranks, the FIA was facing a golden arrow that their armour could not withstand. I have no doubt though, that Max and Bernie always understood FOTA's weakness; there was only one arrow.

FOTA fired their shot on June 19, announcing a breakaway series for 2010 onwards. The arrow was in the air, aimed with great power and accuracy at the hearts of Max and Bernie.

Without the FOTA members, the FIA would be governing a totally meaningless series of races between nobodies, and the commercial income that made Bernie a billionaire would dry up.

I have read a great deal of comment that was extremely hostile to the Max/Bernie axis of F1, but I have never seen any suggestion that either of the men is a fool.

The gang of two knew they could not let the arrow strike home, FOTA's baby could not be allowed to grow. With their ancient cunning they staged a meeting in Paris, attended by FOTA president Luca Di Montezemolo on behalf of the teams.

The perma-tanned Di Montezemolo held all the cards, and he needed to make no concessions whatsoever, for his opponents could verbally agree to anything he asked on the one condition that he agreed to end the breakaway series. For whatever Max and Bernie agreed to, they could always retract later, and let the issues then be buried in endless litigation.

Tragically for the sport, in my opinion, Di Montezemolo did agree to end the breakaway. Thus FOTA's arrow was plucked from the air and broken, never to be fired again. The new baby, less than a week old and not yet named, was suffocated.

And now it is all over; what is our peace dividend? The FIA bureaucracy still regulates F1. The FOM grip on F1's finances is unbroken. And Max departing? I wouldn't bother calling a taxi.

The king is dead, long live the king.

Appropriate to what we have seen over the last few days, I think, is a line from the rock song Hotel California: They stab it with their steely knives, but they just can't kill the beast.