The Formula One Teams’ Association (FOTA) will officially call off its plans for a rival championship tomorrow after reaching a breakthrough deal with the FIA.

Following last-ditch talks between FIA president Max Mosley, FOTA chairman Luca di Montezemolo and F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, an agreement was reached that commits the teams to the sport until 2012.

FOTA members had been set to press ahead with breakaway plans in the meeting in Bologna tomorrow, but following its victory in getting the FIA and Ecclestone to agree to terms that keeps its eight members in F1, it will now rubber stamp final cost-cutting regulations for 2010 and call off its breakaway instead.

The deal between the FIA and FOTA was confirmed on Wednesday afternoon, when the FIA announced that its planned budget cap for 2010 had been scrapped, and instead FOTA-proposed cost-cutting regulations will be introduced.

In a bid to help new teams, technical assistance will be offered to Campos Meta, Manor Grand Prix and Team US F1 by major outfits.

The FIA statement said: “As part of this agreement, the teams will, within two years, reduce the costs of competing in the championship to the level of the early 1990s.

“The manufacturer teams have agreed to assist the new entries for 2010 by providing technical assistance.”

As part of the deal with FOTA, the teams’ association has agreed to recognise the FIA’s position as the sport’s governing body, adding that a new Concorde Agreement has been agreed in principle to keep all of the teams in F1 to 2012 and, upon re-negotiation, it is hoped beyond.

“The manufacturer teams have further agreed to the permanent and continuing role of the FIA as the sport’s governing body,” added the statement. “They have also committed to the commercial arrangements for the FIA Formula 1 World Championship until 2012 and have agreed to renegotiate and extend this contract before the end of that period.

“All teams will adhere to an upgraded version of the governance provisions of the 1998 Concorde Agreement.”

Furthermore, with it clear that FOTA is not trying to usurp the FIA’s authority, FIA president Max Mosley has agreed to not stand for re-election in October.

In addition, all 13 teams including the new Campos Meta, Manor Grand Prix and Team US F1 outfits will be on the grid next season. See the link for the official entry list:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/76497

An agreement has been reached between Formula 1′s governing body and the teams to prevent a breakaway series, says FIA president Max Mosley.

The two parties had been engulfed in a bitter row over planned budgetary and technical changes for the 2010 season.

But it appears a resolution has now been found and, as part of the deal, Mosley has agreed not to stand for re-election as president.

“There will be no split. We have agreed to a reduction of costs,” added Mosley.

“There will be one F1 championship but the objective is to get back to the spending levels of the early 90s within two years.”

F1 surpremo Bernie Ecclestone added that he is “very happy common sense has prevailed”, following a meeting of 120 members of the FIA in Paris aimed at resolving the crisis.

Ahead of the meeting, Mosley had insisted that he would not step down as part of any potential agreement and might even seek re-election as head of world motor sport.

He hit out at what he described as “wholly unjustified criticism” of the FIA, adding: “It is for the FIA membership, and the FIA membership alone, to decide on its democratically elected leadership, not the motor industry and still less the individuals the industry employs to run its Formula 1 teams.”

However, it appears Mosley has now agreed to move aside when his fourth term as FIA president ends in October, saying: “I will not be up for re-election, now we have peace.”

Furthermore, writs that had been threatened against Ferrari and the other teams in the Formula 1 Teams Association (Fota) – McLaren, BMW Sauber, Renault, Toyota, Red Bull Racing, Toro Rosso and Brawn GP – are likely to be shelved.

The agreement ends two months of wrangling since Mosley announced after a World Council meeting at the end of April that a voluntary £40m budget cap would be imposed from next season – a plan that prompted a rebellion from eight teams, with Fota announcing on Thursday they were planning a rival series.

“It’s come as a bit of a surprise, given that Fota were planning to meet in Bologna on Thursday to discuss their plans for the breakaway championship,” reported BBC sports news correspondent James Munro from Paris.

“But what we got today after a meeting of World Motorsport Council was an impromptu press conference and Mosley began by saying there will be no split, there will be one championship.

“He said that over the course of the negotiations he had been able to secure guarantees from the teams who were threatening to get away that they would try to reign back the levels of their spending to the levels they were spending in the early 90s.

“It was him that had come up with the idea that next season all teams would have a budget cap of about £40m, but there has clearly been a trade-off as he has also agreed to do what he says was always the plan – stand down as president of the FIA this October.”

More on this story can be read via Autosport.com. Link: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/76495

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/motorsport/formulaone/4516234/FIA-president-Max-Mosley-to-stand-for-re-election.html

His offer to stand down was made back when he was embroiled in the “Spanky-gate” affair in order to placate his critics and to give himself time to re-group.
As soon as he felt his grip on power was secure again over the winter he had changed his tune, thus mirroring what he did at the last FIA presidency election.

I really don’t think that the FOTA teams’ recent militancy (they also forced the withdrawal of the new scoring system in March) is a coincidence – if Max won’t go by himself , he’ll have to be cut down to size one way or another……..

FIA president Max Mosley said at Silverstone on Sunday that he felt the teams and the governing body were ‘very close’ to a resolution that would avert the threat of a rival series in 2010.

But team principals have insisted that no progress has been made in their discussions with the FIA over the British Grand Prix weekend and in fact, AUTOSPORT understands that FOTA is planning to hold a meeting next Thursday to begin formal selection of championship promoters, technical regulations and a calendar.

Renault boss Flavio Briatore, who arrived at Silverstone on Sunday with Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley, reckons that the time for talking with the FIA was now over.

“We are using so many words, and now is enough,” he told AUTOSPORT. “We have made our statement and this is very clear – that is it.

“We will have it [the breakaway championship] ready in the next few weeks. We have been planning for several weeks already. We want a Formula 1 championship organised by FOTA. There has been no change in the last two days. I do not want to make anymore statements.”

Toyota F1 team president and FOTA vice-chairman John Howett said that initial feedback from fans suggested huge support for the new series – which had galvanized a belief among the teams that they were doing the right thing.

“I think if you look at the overwhelming support we have got from the public, ultimately now there has to be a fairly significant move from the federation,” Howett told AUTOSPORT in reaction to Mosley’s comments.

“Overall we have a clear position and I think we made numerous concessions to achieve some sort of compromise. Now, we have made the decision, and at the moment we are moving forwards very positively on that vector.”

McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh, when asked about Mosley’s suggestions a deal was close, said: “No, I don’t think so. It is difficult to make progress on a Sunday when you are concentrating on going motor racing.

“I think obviously we have to see what happens in the coming few weeks but I think it is not a situation that we set out to achieve. We have got to make sure that we concentrate on keeping all of the teams together and making sure that we are racing together in the premier form of motor racing.”

He added: “FOTA has a number of meetings next week and we’ve got to look at the process by which we appoint people who are selling the media, looking at the way in which we engage circuits. There has been a lot of interest in working with us, and given our situation we are obliged to go forward with those arrangements and that planning.”

FOTA has chosen to schedule its get-together for Thursday because it is the day after the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council meeting, where news of Mosley’s future plans could be revealed.

Mosley had been expected to stand down when his term ends in October but there are mounting suggestions that he could stand for another term because of the current controversy in the sport.

News about the FIA’s plans for legal action against the teams is also expected in the next few days, with perhaps a possibility the court threat will be held off if teams are willing to talk about finding a solution to the row.

Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner said it would be foolish of teams to totally ignore the FIA, if there was the chance of a deal being found.

“I don’t think the door should ever be shut to discussions as long as they are constructive,” he told AUTOSPORT. “If the president is prepared to do that then it is good news.”

Source: Autosport.com

The Formula One Teams’ Association (FOTA) will begin formal preparations for its new championship as early as next week, after Ross Brawn made it clear the teams were focusing flat out on their breakaway series rather than finding a compromise deal with the FIA.

Although FIA president Max Mosley believes that teams will eventually capitulate and sign up to join F1 next year, Brawn is adamant that FOTA is only thinking of going its own way right now.

When asked if he believed that a compromise would be put together that resulted in teams signings up to F1, Brawn said: “No that won’t happen, I mean the decision has been made by FOTA. FOTA now has to press ahead with its ideas and plans. We can’t wait until January and decide which way it is going to go. As each day passes, and each week passes then the options for reconciliation will reduce.”

Amid suggestions that television companies and promoters have already been contacted regarding the breakaway championship, Brawn says that work on framing the technical regulations for the championship will begin in earnest next week.

“Those meetings start next week and we will arrive at a technical specification that we think offers the best racing and is cost effective,” he explained. “Things start next week and we will start to put some more detail to the proposal.”

Despite the stand-off between teams and the FIA, Brawn confirmed that ironically motor racing’s governing body would likely be the regulator of the new series.

“You would need a regulatory body,” he said. “In fact ironically I think the agreement with the European Commission is that the FIA have to offer to do that to any competitive series that wants to set up, so the FIA have to offer to be at least the regulatory body.

“They may not be the body that sets the rules, they can be determined by some other mechanism. But if you want, the FIA can run the series for you. They can provide the stewards, the scruntineers and things of that nature. So that’s available if FOTA wanted to take it up.”

Although Brawn’s stance appears to point towards there being no plans to get the FIA back around the table to discuss saving F1 next year, other team bosses are more conciliatory in their approach.

McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh said it would be foolish of teams not to accept an offer they are happy with if it was put forward by the FIA.

“I don’t think FOTA rules anything out,” said Whitmarsh. “At the moment, as we said earlier in the week, the team were presented with a deadline and, faced with that deadline, the teams did request that there was more time to find a solution.

“So within that deadline the decision was taken, but I think the teams are open to discuss with anybody how we go motor racing next year.”

I think Mosley is learning a hard lesson, don’t go after Ferrari as they are bigger(whether people like it or not) than F1. It’s also an indictment of the F1 policy of staging races in countries where only a despotic ruler is interested, and they are only in it for the prestige. Time to bring F1 or it’s successor back to Europe’s tracks that have been forgotten in the last few years by Mosley and Eccelstone instead of these dead spaces in Bahrain, Turkey, China and Malaysia.