RED BULL'S HORNER INTERVIEW: On FOTA/FIA

This is an excerpt from an interview with Red Bull's Christian Horner followiing the Turkish GP. Only the comments concerninig his opinion of the FIA/FOTA situation are included, nothing about the GP, so there is no SPOILER tag:

Q. We have quite an important week for F1 coming up. What is your feeling heading into that week?

CH: I am just hopeful that a solution can be found. We have a responsibility for the people who work in the sport, for the fans and for everybody involved to try and find a compromise and try and find a solution that doesn't lose any teams and allows new teams to come in, and maintains F1 as the pinnacle of motorsport.

Q. Will the teams sit back and wait for Max to respond, or will there be an effort to try and get him to the table?

CH: I think there is a genuine feeling of wanting to find a solution, and I am just hopeful that common sense will prevail at the end of the day.

Q. Given the various contracts signed by teams in 2005 and 2006, weren't Red Bull under some form of commercial obligation to take part in F1?

CH: I think our major concern is the technical regulations and where they currently sit. The regulations as they currently stand, it is very difficult for us to enter the championship, which is why we have placed a conditional entry.

Q. So that's a yes there was a commercial obligation?

CH: The problem is the Concorde Agreement doesn't truly exist at the moment, so it is important that in the interests of the sport that is concluded as soon as possible – and then 90 per cent of the problems will disappear.

Q. There were some wild rumours circulating the paddock before the race that the FOTA teams were considering a boycott. Can you confirm that such an idea was not discussed by FOTA?

CH: There has never been any discussion [of that]. The only boycott appeared to be the people in the grandstands!

Q. So FOTA are not interested in FOTA action?

CH: No, no, no. We've got a championship to win.

 

You are correct David. I think Max will sit still, no reply to FOTA's leter, its up to FOTA to make another move before Friday. Horner's comments, and those of Domenicali's tell me they are williing to make that move. When I read between the lines of the principal's statments, I hear the acknowledgement that a breakaway series would be near impossible.

I am also beginning to think that Piero Ferrari's comments about using NASCAR methods to reduce costs may actually be the way to go in F1. Temporarily. Budget caps would be difficult to enforce, so until the world economy brings back the big players to F1, maybe its not such a bad thing to have a build your own engine and chassis with great limitiations sort of spec series. At least F1 would survive with the major players that don't bolt anyway.

Sacrilege yes, preservation, absolutetly.