The stand-off over Formula 1’s future could be settled ahead of Friday evening’s deadline for teams to submit their entries for the 2010 season, with reports suggesting FOTA has agreed on a compromise solution over the budget cap.
Recent weeks have been dominated by high-level crisis talks involving the Formula One Teams’ Association and the FIA over the governing body’s controversial regulations, with Ferrari, Renault, Toyota and Red Bull all having vowed to quit if the rules stand as published.
The first step towards a compromise solution appeared to be made following a series of meetings over the Monaco Grand Prix weekend when FIA president Max Mosley indicated that an agreement with the teams was moving closer, with the €45m cap potentially delayed until 2011.
FOTA held a further meeting in London on Wednesday in which the teams agreed on the proposal it will submit to the FIA as the pre-condition for all remaining existing teams to enter applications for 2010.
Reports in the British press in recent days have suggested that the teams have agreed on a “glide path” approach to the budget cap.
A two-stage reduction will see spending capped at a reported figure of around €100 million in 2010, with the original €45m limit then coming into force a year later.
And in an apparent bid to appease the FIA’s intention that new teams can enter the sport with a chance of being competitive, the existing teams will help new entrants by agreeing technical partnerships for 2010 which will be structured so the teams can compete in their own right under the budget cap the next year.
FOTA is expected to issue a statement at some point on Friday in which it officially states its position ahead of the deadline, with teams set to sign up should their terms be met.
So far Williams is the only one of the current 10 squads to have submitted its entry for 2010, the Grove squad’s move resulting in its temporary suspension from FOTA after raising the ire of its fellow teams.
Of the prospective new entrants, the American-based Team US F1 and the Spanish Campos Racing outfit have also confirmed they have submitted entries.
David Richards’s Prodrive organisation, British carmaker Lola and F3 outfit Litespeed
The FIA will reveal the teams that have been accepted onto an expanded 13-team grid on June 12.
|
|
Meanwhile back at the ranch.... by 'Doink' << You are here!
