DECEMBER 2, 2011

Ferrari and Red Bull leave FOTA

Ferrari and Red Bull Racing have served notice of their intent to quit the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA).

Ferrari and Red Bull Racing have served notice of their intent to quit the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA).

A Ferrari statement said: "Ferrari has informed FOTA president Martin Whitmarsh that it is leaving the organisation.

"It was a difficult decision and a great deal of thought went into it. It was taken reluctantly after analysing the current situation and the stalemate when it came to debate on some issues that were at the core of why the association was formed.

"Ferrari was on the front line in this area [cost-cutting] even before the birth of FOTA and it intends to continue down this route to ensure the sustainability of the sport in the long term.

"Now, however, it is necessary to find some new impetus to move it along because FOTA's drive has run its course, despite the excellent work of current president Martin Whitmarsh in trying to reach agreement between the various positions for the common good."

Much of the recent goings-on within FOTA have surrounded F1's Resource Restriction Agreement and the methods of implementing it, with talk in Abu Dhabi hinting that the RRA was about to be removed from FOTA's remit as not being strictly relevant to all the teams.

The action by Ferrari and Red Bull may be a means of focusing minds on the issues or else, as some suspect, the teams have secretly come to a deal with Formula 1 commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone that will give them more favourable terms under any new Concorde Agreement to be agreed for 2013 onwards.

Such a modus opererandi is nothing new to Ferrari, who benefited to the tune of more than $100m by doing its own deal in 2005. As reigning double constructors champions and an increasingly influential team in F1, it would perhaps not be a surprise if Red Bull, too, had not learned lessons...

Officially, the terms of the current agreement preclude the commercial rights holders (either CVC Capital Partners or Mr Ecclestone himself) from negotiating individual deals with any of the competing teams before January 1 2012.

FOTA has confirmed the withdrawal of the two teams but says it is still hopeful of getting all the teams sat down around a table.

Until today, every F1 team save for HRT was a member of FOTA, which was formed in September 2008 in order to present a united front in dealings with the CRH and the sport's governing body, the FIA.

News of the split will inevitably prompt fears of F1 returning to being effectively an arms race between the richest teams, although it is worth pointing out that the resource restriction agreement is a legally binding document with another five years to run.