APRIL 22, 2005

Group of Seven teams to meet this afternoon

The Formula 1 Group of Nine appears to have shrunk to a Group of Seven. A meeting is planned this afternoon in Imola and Red Bull Racing and Jordan have not been invited to attend, having decided to split with the group recently in order to attend an FIA meeting in Paris.

This means that Ferrari now has two allies in the struggle for power. The opposition remains strong, however, as with seven votes the teams can still control what is agreed by the Formula 1 Commission. The FIA's recent statement after the Paris meeting seems to suggest that the federation is not intending to involve the F1 Commission in the rule-making process for 2008 and it remains to be seen whether the seven F1 teams will now try and force the federation to respect what they believe to be the terms of the Concorde Agreement.

While this issue is unresolved it is hard to see how there can be any compromise between the two parties.