Legal Issues of Racing? Problems with FIA?

I'm going to be writing a legal research and advocacy paper about sports this Spring, and I'm hoping to write about motorsports. While I'm going to be doing my own looking around (looking through F1 magazines and the like) to see what the hottest legal issues are for and against the FIA, I was just wondering if anyone had any thoughts that would make a compelling issue to study.

I know that there are many people here who are closer to the pulse of racing and have a better sense of what's going on than I do. I'm more of a moderately informed spectator at this point.

 

There are many issues in sportscar racing between the ACO (who run LeMans, and indirectly the ALMS and ELMS) and the FIA...

 

This is a tough one. The biggest item these days is the FIA's control over Formula one and the major manufacturers that spend the hundreds of millions to participate wanting a greater say. The world is full of sanctioning bodies but the FIA is the one who currently oversees F1. The manufacturers are currently threatening to go their own way if the FIA and F1 don't make some concessions. Just do a search on Grand Prix Manufacturers Association (GPMA) and FIA and you'll get a hole host of stuff.

Also do a search here in the Racing forum on Grand Prix Manufacturers Association (GPMA) and just see how contentious it is.

 

Not to rain on your parade, but I'm not sure that there is enough legal meat on this bone to justify a paper. After all, these are private organizations, correct? So if you don't like the rules, too bad. I can see where there might be contractual issues between the participants and the organization. But even then, life ain't always fair.

Now there might be some meat in studying vicarious liabilities regarding safety. That is, say the SCCA specs call for rollbars of X toughness. The FIA, however, requires X+1. Could the SCCA be liable for having a lower standard than the FIA?

Same thing with race track design. Say that track A touts its new improved safety barrier. Now say that the last thing that Ricky Racer saw when he slamed into the wall was this new and improved barrier, which sadly didn't work. Could Ricky's estate have a case against the track?

But, hey, what do I know? I'm just a lowly bean counter.

Dale

PS Pls call tomorrow when you get a chance.

 

True, a lot of it is contract based private agreements, but there are probably antitrust issues when there's a 500lb gorilla (FIA) getting to run the show. Then again, we allow league monopolies. And there are still plenty of player vs. team vs. league issues to talk about in other sports...

 

Err the F1 issues isnt just with FIA but also with FOM.

FOM looks after the commercial interests of F1 with Bernie as President.

FIA is a non-profit organisation and its main mission is safety for motorists not just in motorsport. The main sports it looks after is F1, RALLY and WTCC but most countries in the world would have a governing body for motorsport which are linked to FIA.

FIA looks after the rules of the sport basically while FOM looks after the running and money side of F1. GMPA has an issue on how the profits are spread.

Im not really sure what you want to write about but safety would be the biggest legal issue the FIA would have to worry about.

 

Here is a good one for you: Do some google search about the controversy surrounding last year's season opening F1 GP in Australia. Search for Minardi and its then team owner Stoddart. Why? It was the culmination of the age old legal question whether a sport sanctioning body like FIA is the highest authority when it comes to its own racing series or whether a country's court system has the ultimate power (Stoddart wanted to take his case to the Australian court, in essence legalizing his cars, which FIA deemed illegal).

The whole thing was a political gamble, but regardless should give you plenty to research, analyze and write about.

Another controversy would be for instance the death of Ayrton Senna and the Italian court system accusing the team owners Williams and Head of manslaughter. Italian courts are notorious for this, you can do a research on a similar case made against Ricardo Patrese for the death of Ronny Peterson at the Monza GP.

Finally there are endless battles over tobacco advertisement rights. Obviously banned in the EU, but still a major money force in F1. Aside from more general questions like whether it is ok to broadcast e.g. a Bahrain GP where tobacco advertising is legal on a EU TV there are also finer points particularly when it comes to the Belgium GP: Spa is a major money maker for that region and its owners have therefore tried to get an exception from tobacco advertisements.

Oh and finally: Research the Hungarian GP of 2005. It just happened over the weekend when tobacco ads got banned. The FIA postulates that you can no longer work on a car after Saturday's qualifying and it goes straight into parc ferme. So some cars went in there with tobacco livery on, despite the fact that this became illegal on Sunday. Some teams already changed the day before.

Sheesh, an endless topic. Maybe I should write your paper.

 

i bet there was all kinds of legal issues involving the 05 US GP. issues between the speedway, FOM, the Teams and Michelin.

and im sure you could find some more information since a) it was in the US and b) it was not too long ago.

 

Ryan

A couple years back there was a bad accident in the CART race in Toronto, one driver killed and two corner workers killed. The resultant investigation and the repercussions regarding the layout of the track as a temp course on existing city streets and the legal issues surrounding it is thick reading but could be something (Liability issues for venues, series, race promotors)

 

I agree with several other members that your story will be the safety issues involving motorsports. 2 years ago motorsports lost several drivers, over 5 as I remember. Everytime a fatal incident occurs, there is a legal battle that goes on for years. I was involved in a track/driver death in 2002 and the case was finally completed a few months ago. The day of the accident, local police has to send in homicide detectives to make sure there was not any foul play such as brake lines cut, intentional steering failure, etc. I was called to retrieve the data from the cars logging system as it was damaged in the crash. I then became the "expert witness" for the sanctioning body that was sued by the drivers family along with the track, the city, and the chassis manufacturer. I was truly amazed at how much went on behind closed doors that I think would make a great paper for you. Most people just don't know the legal battles that go on in this type of event. Good luck in your endeavor.

 

Thank you so much for these leads, guys - this is plenty to mull over... I'm intrigued by the Australian court vs. FIA issue, since it brings in sovereigns against a sports league. Also, the safety/crash issues in inherently dangerous sports is also an exciting avenue.

I'll keep you all posted - my Sports Law course starts in a few weeks.

 

How about this recent issue about Toyota stealing Ferrari technology:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/4618260.stm

http://f1.racing-live.com/f1/en/index.html

Appears the charge is industrial espionage...interesting issue, especially with chief designers and aerodynamicists changing teams (ex. Adrian Newey to Red Bull). How do you not bring in your knowledge about the previous team?

 

Interesting...

I remeber an old "F1 Manager" sim where you could perform industrial espionage...

 

You could probably research some on the Michelin tire problems at the USGP and the legal battles that happened in the months following that. There was a big debate over driver safety (according to Michelin) vs. putting on a show for the fans (FIA-FOM).