AUGUST 26, 2005

Formula One and Formula One back in court

The High Court in London is currently quiet, with most of the justices away on their summer recess. At this time of year the courts deal only with interim hearings, which can result in interim orders pending the resolution of a legal action. Thus it is interesting to see that Mr Justice Peter Smith today had an interim hearing involving Formula One Holdings versus Formula One Adminstration. This appears to have been about two different issues and one can only suggest that it is probably related to previous rulings by the High Court as we were not aware of any new actions. It is also highly unlikely that any new case would begin when the courts are closed.

The listing suggests that FOH, which is controlled by Bayerische Landesbank, JP Morgan Chase and Lehman Brothers, does not have control of FOA. If it did there would be no need for any legal action. It was thought that FOA came under the control of the banks some time ago but if this has not happened then it makes sense that there might be an emergency application to make sure that a previous ruling is applied. Whatever the details, the battles for the control of the commercial rights of F1 seem to be continuing, which underlines the belief that we are unlikely to see any compromises between the parties involved.

It remains to be seen whether the latest case will have any effect at all in the overall scheme of things but it does add to the feeling that when eventually they do get control of the business, the banks may not be very keen on working with those who have been blocking their progress all this time.