Formula One's fragile peace was once again broken after Ferrari and seven other teams walked out of a meeting in Germany with the governing body over next year's rules. In a further case of he said/she said, the FIA reports that..."The eight FOTA (Formula One Teams Association) teams were invited to attend the meeting to discuss their further proposals for 2010," "Unfortunately, no discussion was possible because FOTA walked out of the meeting."
FOTA, who had threatened to set up their own breakaway series until what seemed to be a breakthrough deal was announced in Paris last month, said in a statement that Formula One's future was again in jeopardy.
With the two parties supposedly meeting to confirm the technical and sporting rules for next year's World Championship on Wednesday - which was due to include the lack of a budget cap but an aim to reduce spending levels to 1990s levels - FOTA has released a statement explaining its full reasons for why its eight members (each current team, with the exception of William and Force India) decided to depart the meeting.
With the FIA claiming on Wednesday that the eight FOTA teams are not yet fully entered to next year's championship - and therefore unable to request changes to proposed FIA rules - FOTA has responded by stating its feelings that rules have already been discussed between the two parties during a Paris meeting in April and furthermore that the FIA's latest actions have compromised the future of the sport.
The FOTA statement reads:
'Representatives of all FOTA teams attended a meeting of the Sporting Working Group at the Nürburgring today.
During the course of this meeting, the team managers were informed by Mr Charlie Whiting of the FIA that, contrary to previous agreements, the eight FOTA teams are not currently entered into the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship and have no voting rights in relation to the technical and sporting regulations thereof.
It will be remembered that all eight active FOTA members were included on the "accepted" entry list as endorsed by the FIA World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) and communicated by FIA press statement on June 24.
In light of these claims, the FOTA representatives requested a postponement of today's meetings. This was rejected on the grounds that no new Concorde Agreement would be permitted before a unanimous approval of the 2010 regulations was achieved.
However, it is clear to the FOTA teams that the basis of the 2010 technical and sporting regulations was already established in Paris.
As endorsed by the WMSC and clearly stated in the FIA press statement of 24 June "the rules for 2010 onwards will be the 2009 regulations as well as further regulations agreed prior to 29 April 2009". At no point in the Paris discussions was any requirement for unanimous agreement on regulations change expressed. To subsequently go against the will of the WMSC and the detail of the Paris agreement puts the future of Formula 1 in jeopardy.
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.
The FOTA members undertook the Paris agreement and the subsequent discussions in good faith and with a desire to engage with all new and existing teams on the future of Formula One.'
