OCTOBER 28, 2002
Today is the day...
The meeting of the Formula 1 Commission in London today is being billed as one of the most important in the history of the sport - but it seems unlikely that much will really come of it unless the Formula 1 teams can work together to agree to change the structure of the sport.
There may be the possibility of that there will be changes to the sporting regulations to try to brighten up qualifying, the tyre regulations and testing but the more radical changes such as drivers switching between the teams and weight penalties are very unlikely to be successful.
There are some in F1 who see the whole build-up to the meeting as having been a smokescreen to take attention away from the attempts to settle more important issues in the sport, specifically the control of the commercial rights of F1.
The fundamental problem with F1 is that its decision-making structure is unworkable. The current Concorde Agreement is such that the teams have a lot of power but are incapable of working together and unless they all agree that the contract can be changed it will remain in place until the end of 2007 and nothing will develop. The attitude of the big factory teams is that Formula 1 can be transformed into a new "Grand Prix World Championship" with a fairer distribution of the money that is raised but there is a suspicion that a settlement can only be reached if some of those involved disappear from the scene.
The move towards a settlement is, on the surface at least, moving slowly ahead. The GPWC announced a few days ago that it has made a proposal to the banks which run the Formula One group to restucture Formula 1 with two new Concorde Agreements stretching until 2017. This sounds hopeful but a great deal depends of the attitude of the FIA, which is known to be fed up with the current situation.