from crash net Mosley drops legal threat and hints resolution is 'very close' Having softened his threat of dragging the case through the courts, Max Mosley has suggested that a solution to the explosive and highly damaging FIA/FOTA civil war over the future of F1 is 'very, very close' – as he warned the Formula One Teams' Association that if the stand-off continues for much longer, it will be the teams that suffer, not the governing body. The British Grand Prix weekend has been marked by strike and counter-strike from the two warring factions, with FOTA announcing late on Thursday night that it intends to follow through with its menace of organising a separate 'breakaway' series free from the FIA's contentious jurisdiction, and Mosley responding with notice of legal action to prevent the eight rebel teams from pulling out, adamant that to do so would be to break the terms of their contractual agreements. Following further talks, however – focussed on the two key issues of the controversial budget cap that Mosley plans to introduce from next year onwards, and the Englishman's increasingly autocratic manner of governance that the teams consider is bordering on the arbitrary – the FIA President has hinted that a rapprochement may yet be in the pipeline. “There won't be any writ,” he told The Associated Press, backtracking on his earlier vow. “I think we would rather talk than litigate. We are very, very close as far as the facts are concerned. It's just if the teams want to sit down and iron out the last few difficulties.” Those teams – composed of dissenters Ferrari, McLaren-Mercedes, BMW-Sauber, Toyota, Renault, Red Bull Racing, Scuderia Toro Rosso and current F1 World Championship leaders Brawn GP – have been described by Mosley as 'loonies', some of them 'immoderate in their approach', and the 69-year-old insisted that FOTA would come off worse if a deal is not struck soon, with McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh having evoked a 'point of no return' of the end of July. “I would agree with that,” he acknowledged. “If this goes on for any length of time, it damages the teams. It doesn't affect the FIA; it damages the teams because it affects their sponsors.” “If Max says [a deal] is close, then that's good,” added the top flight's commercial rights-holder Bernie Ecclestone. * * * * * * I hardly think the FOTA teams are loonies - saying this about the teams Max is pointing at them with three fingers pointing back at him! Max's latest: Drop the threat of legal action... (Not much chance of winning anyway). Try to negotiate with the teams ... (no F1 without them), when they have signed for another five years he'll have them exactly where he wants them...and he is the winner! I hope they don't talk to him. Carol
thought this was interesting: On a day when Sky Italia took a poll during their broadcast of the British Grand Prix which found an astonishing 91 percent of viewers supported the Formula One Teams' Association stance, Max Mosley said the FIA will not proceed with legal action against the FOTA members, indicating he would rather reach a deal to stave off the threat of a breakaway championship. Carol
At the very start of this I said Bernie will sort it, and his main problem will be a saving face exercise for his partner in crime MAX. I just hope the FOTA do not give an inch and demand Mosleys head on a plate, in other words we won't race till he is removed from his position.
Max is feeling the pressure. He's out there in the press saying "don't worry, everything is OK! See, we've come so close to a deal that there's no point in litigation". Polarly opposite from what the team owners are saying. They are saying there is no point in talking anymore, but that they will listen to whatever the FIA wants to offer. FIA is talking like they are hammering this out and compromising - obviously they are not. FOTA is saying "well, if the FIA wants to come back to us, we'll listen, but other than that, we're doing our own thing". Max is delusional. He is starting to get nervous, and realizing that he is going to have a hard time winning this one. He still hasn't gotten it yet, however. >90% of people support FOTA (and that doesn't mean 9% support the FIA - some of that 9% probably lay blame on both sides), the sponsors are with them, tracks are already saying they want to host races, etc. It's all crumbling around Max. Too bad he's a little dictator and will let the ship sink rather than do the honorable thing and stand down.
Max is a lawyer: threatening to sue was a knee-jerk reaction. I think the one thing that will fundamentally block a "compromise" is the push by FOM to make F1 a spec series. The concerns over "two series" from a break away just highlights the future issues if F1 becomes just another Indycar series. F1 is a manufacturers' series: it's about the pinnacle of motorsports coming from innovation. A spec series just *can't* be F1. This isn't a question of FOTA creating "another" F1 series -- it's a case of FOTA taking F1 away from FOM ..... which needs to be done. How can FOM "compromise" on that?
+1000 He is a complete nobody F1 put him in the headlines and I hope it finishes him off, a shamed and broken doomed man. His days of loafing about in Paris drinking gallons of champagne and having dozens of moist, pink, highly experienced...ahh I digress. Fixed.. +1000
No, no..keep going, so far this all sounds pretty good! It's the Nazi dominatrix and spanking that gives me the willys.
The most appropriate role play for MaXXX would be Ned Beatty's part from Deliverance... Wonder if Ron Dennis would be interested in making his feature film debut as a banjo player?
At some point shouldn't Max and Bernie start getting overwhelming pressure from various track owners and title sponsors? Maybe they have, I don't know. If it's me, I wouldn't care a whole lot about what they say right now--I want to associate with the real thing, as sold to me when I signed the deal with them. Not 'Max 'n Bernie's Racin' Road Show'. And if Monaco goes with FOTA, those boobs are cooked. Bernie will be forced to resurrect Brabham to fill out his grid!
He lied about Fota Fia being close to sorting things out in at least three languages Sunday: after the coverage of French TV -who interviewed him at lenght- ended I switched over to the German one and he lied just as badly in those two languages. As I wrote last year if you put him in a room with a psychiatrist it is the shrink who would run out of the room after a short while.
Its going to take some major concession from Max, and or a bag of gelt from Bernie, to swing the Teams from their new series path,imho. The time for re-assuring "close to compromise" pr statements and waiting for self interest to fracture the teams by Max is past. Thats just not going to work now. He doesn't have much time to make that concession either. The window closes with each step the Teams make towards inking the new series agreements. There will be cost cutting but it wont be decided by Max whatever the outcome. He set that dog running with the millions wasted on KERS despite all teams bar BMW wanting to veto it. Can't see an extension of the Concorde Agreement coming into being now either. Bernie's hopes of that happening, to keep things going amidst general confusion, are now dashed too. The Teams have a clear alternative better deal.
Yep, it's too late for FIA to salvage this, especially in light that the teams know they cannot get any more money from CVC...there's lots more payola available to them on their own that Bernie/CVC simply cannot afford to offer.
'Teams want Mosley ousted to save F1' Monday 22nd June 2009 - PlanetF1.com The FOTA teams threatening a breakaway from F1 have reportedly suggested that the removal of Max Mosley as FIA president would herald the sport's much-needed reconciliation. A plot to remove Mosley will reputedly be led by Ferrari this week at a meeting of the FIA's world council. According to The Guardian, 'the removal of Mosley from the presidency of the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) would open the way for negotiations with Bernie Ecclestone, the holder of the sport's commercial rights.' With the teams publicly insisting that they are pressing ahead with their plans to form a new series, the newspaper reports that behind-the-scenes machinations are already being plotted to oust the Englishman from his position. 'On Wednesday of this week, at a meeting in Paris of the FIA's world motor sport council, Luca di Montezemolo, the president of Ferrari and chairman of the breakaway group, will begin a process aimed at securing the 69-year-old Englishman's departure from a post he has held since 1991, dissuading him from standing for re-election for a sixth term in November in order to prevent the damage likely to be caused to both sides by a split.' While the dispute between the teams and the governing body is ostensibly over plans to introduce a budget cap next season, the Guardian reports that, 'according to a senior FOTA source, the teams' overriding priority is to rid themselves of Mosley's autocratic style of governance. Widely resented, it finally became intolerable to the bulk of participants in Formula One when he attempted to impose a swath of radical rule changes, in particular a £40m budget cap to take effect next season.' As PF1 has remarked previously this weekend, Mosley is the ultimate survivor. However, The Guardian cites its source as explaining that, ' Once Mosley has gone', the teams 'will expect Ecclestone to respond to a list of grievances including the refusal to grant them a bigger slice of Formula One's gross income, the insistence on charging such high fees to circuit promoters that ticket prices are unnecessarily inflated, and the failure to establish rounds of the championship in North America, an important market for the major manufacturers
Steve I was just posting confirmation of your insight as validated by the press. Its amazing they dont see that you are light years ahead of them. They act as if the story I posted was actually new Well done!!!
