Motor Racing: Williams break ranks as F1 teams send ultimatum
Posted: 25 May 2009 2330 hrs

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MONTE CARLO: Williams on Monday broke ranks with the rest of the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) by lodging an entry to the 2010 world championship.

Less than 24 hours after joining the other nine teams in writing to Max Mosley, president of the FIA, the sports ruling body, to urge him to scrap his controversial 2010 budget-cap plans, Williams said they had to comply with a binding F1 contract.

Their announcement once again called into question the unity of the teams as, led by Ferrari and Toyota, they continued their fight to block the 2010 plans and to negotiate for a compromise settlement on cost-cutting.

It also added a new twist to the ongoing crisis in Formula One as Friday's deadline for 2010 entries looms - with the prospect of the sport being transformed from its current high-cost luxury status into a lower-cost and more accessible series.

Williams chief executive Adam Parr said: "We believe FOTA has extracted some very significant concessions from the FIA.

"These include not only the procedural aspects of the budget cap, but also other elements that will enable the higher budget teams to participate.

"Having said that, we have a binding contract with FOM (Formula One Management, Bernie Ecclestone's company) and the FIA to participate from 2008 to 2010.

"We have been paid in full for our participation and we feel both morally and legally obliged to make it clear that we will participate in Formula One in the future as we have in the past 30 years.

"We owe this to our employees, our sponsors and the fans, all of whom are affected by statements that teams may not enter next year's championship."

Williams' decision and statement appeared to be very out of step with the other teams and came, on Monday, just four days before Friday's deadline for existing teams to lodge their entries for next season.

FOTA, in their letter to Mosley, urged him to tear up his proposed 'budget cap' plans this week if he wanted the teams to sign for next year.

"What we have asked for is to go back to the rules of this year (2009) and then see, together, what we can do in order to make changes for next year," said Ferrari team chief Stefano Domenicali.

According to Domenicali, the teams want an immediate revocation of Mosley's 2010 plans before Friday's deadline for 2010 entries to be lodged.

He said they would not sign for next year unless this happened because, by lodging an entry as matters stand, they would be accepting the new rules, including the voluntary 40 million pounds budget cap and likely two-tier formula next year.

Mosley, who met FOTA, led by Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo in Monte Carlo on Friday, spent much of the weekend of the Monaco Grand Prix informally briefing reporters on possible scenarios in the crisis.

Mosley suggested that the FIA may consider revising the proposed 40m voluntary budget cap to a higher figure for 2010, to help the big-budget teams like Ferrari, Toyota and McLaren-Mercedes Benz, to 'glide' downwards before the proper cap is enforced for 2011.

But many of the teams are so angry at the way in which Mosley has pushed though his own plans without consultation that they remain adamant that all talk of capping budgets has to be stopped.

Mosley believes, however, a compromise can be reached, but fears that at least one or two teams may depart.

"I think one or two of them may have to stop, but nothing to do with these discussions," he said. "It is very difficult for a major manufacturer to continue in Formula One when they are doing economies in their factories like shutting off every other lift, turning down the electricity, not cleaning the windows, not serving coffee at the meetings.

"A company that is in that sort of situation is unlikely to go on pouring massive money into Formula One."

Renault, whose team boss Flavio Briatore hosted Friday's FOTA meeting on his 80m super-yacht in Monte Carlo, face difficulties because the team's main sponsor ING will pull out at the end of the season. Toyota are also expected to be under pressure to follow Honda and leave Formula One.

Mosley said: "We can see solutions now. I don't think there is any fundamental diversity of view.

"The main stumbling block really is the same old thing - trying to reconcile the people who have got a lot of money at the moment, and think they will continue to have a lot, with the interests of those who haven't, and trying to keep a full grid."

The teams believe that a budget cap is not only a bad decision, but also an unworkable solution to the problems.

They do not want their accounts to be audited on a regular and intrusive basis by the FIA's representatives. Instead, they want to introduce specific cost-cutting plans that are self-policed.

Two new teams, one Spanish and one American, have already lodged notice of their desire to join the championship and it is understood that the FIA and FOTA are examining ways in which they can be offered low-cost engines and transmissions to control costs as part of a possible compromise arrangement for next year. - AFP/de