JANUARY 28, 2005

Mosley responds to meeting boycott

FIA President Max Mosley spent the afternoon talking about the future of Formula 1 with Ferrari bosses Jean Todt and Ross Brawn. The other nine teams stayed away from the meeting.

FIA President Max Mosley spent the afternoon talking about the future of Formula 1 with Ferrari bosses Jean Todt and Ross Brawn. The other nine teams stayed away from the meeting. Afterwards Mosley said that he had scheduled another meeting for April 15 and hoped that the teams would attend. Mosley shrugged off the boycott saying that the teams had been sulking about the deal between the FIA, Formula One Management and Ferrari. Mosley also said it was impossible to take the GPWC seriously.

"At the moment it's very easy for people to huff and puff and take positions," he said, but he added that he believes that when F1 kicks off in 2008 "They will all be there."

Mosley's confidence seems out of place given that there is considerable discontent now coming to the surface as a result of the deal between the FIA, FOM and Ferrari. The feeling we get from talking to a wide selection of team owners is that the teams are no longer willing to be pushed around and want change. A week ago that deal looked to have seen off any chance of a rival series but the predictions that the opposition would fall apart have been proven wrong. The teams have drawn closer together. On paper the FIA has not had a good week: an FIA meeting was ignored by the majority of the teams; the FIA's right to decide rules and regulations in F1 for 2008 has been challenged; the majority of the teams and the commercial rights holder have said that they want a new framework for Grand Prix racing which is "open, transparent and fair in commercial, technical and sporting governance", which has "a fair and open system for rule determination" and which ensures that "all stakeholders deal with each other and conduct themselves with mutual respect". The implication is that this is not currently the case.

In addition to all of this there has been a strongly-worded statement from Toyota, the biggest car manufacturer in F1, which makes it clear that the huge Japanese company is not happy with the way the deal was done between the FIA, FOM and Ferrari.