Left field

Mosley gives F1 teams a parting gift

By anointing Jean Todt as his designated successor, Max Mosley has sent a pretty clear message to the troublesome Formula One teams.

They wanted him out but if they think they are going to get someone more amenable running motorsport’s world governing body, then they can think again.

In fact, they are mistaken if they think they have seen the back of Mosley himself.

As the Briton said in a letter to FIA member clubs on Wednesday, he hopes to play “a modest role” himself in any Todt administration after he stands down in October.

The Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) made their position pretty clear last month when Toyota’s John Howett, the group’s vice-chairman, said “we’d like someone independent… independent of any of the teams.”

Their immediate silence to Mosley’s letter was telling. As Alan Henry writes on the Guardian website, it “confirmed a deep-rooted suspicion that Todt is the favoured successor largely because he thinks like Mosley and, perhaps more worryingly for the teams, may act like him too.”

Todt might be seen as a Ferrari man, having presided over the golden Michael Schumacher era at the Italian team, but there is now a very different atmosphere at Maranello to when he called the shots.

Why Ferrari is Formula One

One month on, and it appears to be all over. Ferrari won. In the war of the brands, it was no contest. And, in the end, it was Bernie Ecclestone who saw the writing on the wall for F1, too.

After a Paris breakfast with Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo on Wednesday, he told FIA president Max Mosley it was over. No more crusades, no more rows over rules and no more daft outbursts. Ecclestone had to save the F1 brand, protect the investment of CVC Capital and his own interests, and make sure his old friend and ally knew what to expect: Game Over, Max.

Even if Mosley is now threatening to stay in his post after being angered by some team comments to the press, really, we should have all seen his exit coming.

This is what Ferrari wrote on their own website on Monday: “Maranello, 22nd June 2009 – The British magazine SportsPro published a list of the world’s 200 most valuable sports properties. The Team Ferrari is the highest ranked European team property, place seven overall, behind the big US-American organisations such as NFL, MLB and NBA. Ferrari is followed by Manchester United Football Club and Formula 1. The classification has been set up using various factors such as the balance, the brand name’s prestige and other factors.”

And this is what they announced on Wednesday: “Maranello, 24th June 2009 – Today the FIA World Council accepted the proposals formulated by FOTA for the 2010 Formula 1 World Championship. A Championship, which will be held, as suggested by FOTA, in the spirit of sporting and technological competition, with clear and fixed rules and transparent governance, handled by the F1 Commission.

The objective is to avoid continual changes decided on by one person alone and to gradually reduce costs, to get back to levels of spending similar to those of the early Nineties within the next two years. The FOTA teams constantly promoted these objectives in the interests of motorsport and all its protagonists, first and foremost the fans.”

Who should replace Mosley if he does go?

I asked Max Mosley at a lunch before the start of the Formula One season whether there was anyone masochistic enough to want to take on his job. He laughed.

“Maybe that’s the qualification, that you’ve got to be into that little world…” the FIA president chuckled.

It had looked definite that he was retiring in October after a deal with teams to avert a breakaway series on Wednesday but he has since said he is annoyed by comments by the teams to the media and suggested that he could rethink his decision to stand down.

If he does leave, one suspects the members of the Paris-based International Automobile Federation are likely to choose somebody rather more straitlaced than Mosley, even if they did give him a resounding vote of confidence after his involvement in a sado-masochistic sex scandal last year.

Who that might be is the big question in motorsport circles, at least outside of America.

Former Ferrari boss Jean Todt has been touted, although he would not be particularly palatable to the teams who want someone completely independent to oversee their sport.

Peace breaks out in Formula One

Formula One stepped back from the brink on Wednesday as FIA president Max Mosley agreed a compromise with FOTA, the Teams’ Association, to save the sport from a rival breakaway series.

The disagreement, which centred on Mosley’s plans to introduce a budget cap for the 2010 season, had threatened to end Formula One’s 60-year existence with eight teams including champions Ferrari prepared to walk away for good.

To the relief of Formula One fans and teams including McLaren, Red Bull and Brawn GP who all faced having to start again in what would have been a hastily arranged rival championship, Wednesday’s world motor sport council meeting in Paris has finally ended that threat.

The compromise comes about as Mosley also announced that he would not stand for re-election as FIA president, something many thought would have to happen for any agreement to be reached.

The controversy of a possible split has overshadowed the sport in recent weeks but hopefully attention can now return to a season which promises a championship showdown between Jenson Button’s Brawn GP and Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel.

Roll on Germany’s Nuerburgring.

Breaking news: Formula One steps back from the brink

A deal has been reached with Formula One teams to avoid a breakaway series next year, media reported FIA president Max Mosley as saying on Wednesday.

Mosley and eight teams had been at loggerheads over his plans to introduce a budget cap for 2010.

Mosley also said he would not stand for re-election as FIA president.

Formula One on the brink as eight teams threaten split

Formula One plunged into its biggest crisis in 60 years on Friday with eight of the 10 teams announcing plans to set up their own championship.

The teams association FOTA said BMW-Sauber, Brawn, Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull, Renault, Toro Rosso and Toyota were united in a decision that would split the sport in two if carried through.

“The teams cannot continue to compromise on the fundamental values of the sport and have declined to alter their original conditional entries to the 2010 world championship,” said a statement.

“These teams therefore have no alternative other than to commence the preparation for a new championship which reflects the values of its participants and partners.”

Click here for the full story, and check back for more news as it happens on a decisive day for Formula One.

Formula One can name anything complicated … even a list

How complicated can an entry list be? Very, if its anything to do with Formula One.

On the piece of paper published by the governing FIA on Friday, there are 13 teams entered with a total of 26 cars. Simple as that.

Except five of the teams, including McLaren and championship-leaders Brawn, are only provisional because they don’t like the rules.

Of the other eight, three are confirmed but do not want to be. Ferrari, Red Bull and Toro Rosso say they should be provisional entries too and refuse to accept the FIA’s designation.

That leaves five undisputed unconditional entries, three of them new teams who have yet to produce a grand prix car but have convinced the governing body that they have the wherewithal to do it.

That also means that if, in a week’s time, there has been no breakthrough on the 2010 rules and governance of the sport, the eight members of the Formula One Teams Association FOTA could withdraw.

Amusing Ferrari take on Formula One chaos

Max Mosley’s plans for a budget cap next season, which would give teams with a cap greater technical freedom, has led Ferrari, Renault, Toyota and the two Red Bull teams to say they will not race next season unless the rules are changed.

Piero Ferrari, son of founder Enzo, showed off some of his firm’s trademark class with this comment:

“It’s like soccer. In Italy we have Inter, who are winning, and they spend huge amounts of money for the best players. But in Serie A you also have a team like Catania, who have no money,” he told the Guardian.

“So do you say to Catania, ‘You can play with 12 players,’ and to Inter, ‘You must play with nine?’ It wouldn’t be fair. But this is what the new Formula One rules are like.”

Can you imagine Formula 1 without Ferrari?

Ferrari’s threat to pull out of Formula One at the end of the year unless the governing body backs down on a planned budget cap sets the stage for what will be heated talks at the top of the sport over the coming weeks.

While the step appears dramatic, it is part of a war of wills between International Automobile Federation (FIA) president Max Mosley and the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) led by Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo.

Tuesday’s development (see here for the full statement) sets out the battle lines before a likely meeting between the two men ahead of next week’s Monaco Grand Prix.

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?

The FIA have proposed an optional 40 million pound ($60 million) budget cap for 2010 to encourage new teams to enter and safeguard the sport against the risk of more manufacturers pulling out after Honda’s departure in December.

Those teams accepting the cost cap will get greater technical freedom than those remaining with unlimited budgets, potentially creating a two-tier series.

Driver salaries, engines and marketing costs will be exempt from any cap, effectively making the overall budget closer to 60 million pounds for a small team like Force India — not very different to what they have now.

Have McLaren been punished enough already?

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh celebrates his 51st birthday on Wednesday and it doesn’t look like being much fun.

You can bet he would rather be anywhere else than appearing before Formula One’s governing body in Paris to take the rap for his team ‘deliberately misleading’ race stewards.

Any naughty schoolboy caught lying to a teacher will know how he will feel.

Whitmarsh has put his hand up, apologised and accepted that he (or his team) has erred. Now all he has to do is step into the headmaster’s study (alone) and take the punishment.

Will it be a metaphorical slap on the wrists, a fine, six of the best (not perhaps the most felicitous of analogies given FIA president Max Mosley’s past involvement in a sado-masochistic orgy) or expulsion?

British bookmakers William Hill are offering odds on at 1/2 that the team will get a points deduction, with a suspension at 7/4. “We are confident that McLaren will not get off Scot free,” said spokesman Rupert Adams.

Their other odds: 10/1 no further punishment and, most intriguingly, 12/1 McLaren to win the constructors’ championship.