As the F1 World Turns : Teams versus FIA, FOM

The meeting Friday among FOTA (Formula 1 racing teams), Max Mosley and the FIA (Federation Internationale de l'Automobile) and Bernie Ecclestone and the FOM (Formula One Management) broke up with nothing settled. A variety of issues supposedly were on the table involving both governance of the sport and distribution of money, but the meeting ended prematurely when news of Ferrari legal action reached Mosley.

Ferrari is seeking an injunction to stop implementation of the FIA's controversial 2010 Technical Regulations which contain provisions for a budget cap. Reports from the meeting indicate that Toyota and Renault had been leading the "cap" opposition while Ferrari's team principal Stefano Domenicali stayed out of the spotlight. Ferrari and FOTA chairman Luca di Montezemolo was absent, tending to obligations surrounding the death of his father. Given the complex nature of the Ferrari suit, Mosley adjourned the meeting.

Recalling the last teams/manufacturers vs. management dust-up in 2004-05, Ferrari defused the situation by signing a covenant with the FIA and FOM to extend the Concorde Agreement that governs F1 business through the period 2008-12. That alliance essentially guaranteed that any breakaway manufacturers' series would have to carry on without Ferrari - considered the world's most popular racing team. It broke the back of that rebellion.

Although the details of the Ferrari-FIA-FOM agreement were never made public, Ferrari contends it was given the right to veto technical regulations not approved by the Formula 1 Commission - that being the basis of its injunction application. The Formula 1 Commission is made up of 13 representatives - six from the teams, five from race promoters, one from the commercial rights holder (Ecclestone and the FOM) and one from the FIA - and hasn't met since late 2005.

In essence, Ferrari has created an impasse - one dripping with irony. The problems of governance and money distribution that fomented the unpleasantness of 2004-05 were never solved but simply plastered over. Whereas the FIA and FOM employed Ferrari as a defuser - no pun intended - in 2005, Mosley stated last week that Formula 1 doesn't need Ferrari. However, Ferrari's suit has called a critical time-out just as intransigence was setting in all around the conference table.

Over the next several weeks, we will learn what is really important to the each of the major players and can FOTA maintain a united front this time around.