It's all a bit murky (wow in F1...really?) but the story goes more or less like this: some FOTA members are not happy that, while playing the moralists with regards to their supposed lack of team orders, Red Bull were breaking a gentlemen's agreement on spending, the so called "“Resource restriction agreement”.
Teams had agreed on a self-imposed spending ceiling of 100 Million Euro on external contracts, salaries and infrastructure for the 2010 season. Italy's Gazzetta Dello Sport is claiming Red Bull spent some 160 Million Euro in their quest for the 2010 double championship.
Now the rub, according to the above mentioned "rule" within the manufacturers association, any overspending from one season needs to be subtracted from the following season's agreed upon budget, Red Bull would need to limit itself to 40 Million in 2011.... you know that's not happening.
Also not happening right now is FOTA. Of course Red Bull will do every it can to undermine a group that might force them to abide to an inconvenient agreement, and there is no agreement on the 2011 spending ceiling. Also there is nobody, as of yet, who has volunteered to take over from Mclaren's Martin Whitmarsh as the head of that shaky club. Who would want that job?
Crowing on the sidelines is certainly Max Mosley, who had always maintained that FOTA was fundamentally improbable. Between this budget squabble and manufacturers already rumbling over the supposedly decided upon 2013 engine specs, he can't wait for his "I told you so" moment.
As Formula 1 turns...
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Formula 1 is enough of a train wreck, I'd always hoped FOTA would break away. Though now if FOTA itself may crumble, there really is little hope.
ReplyDeleteThe Italian's really are bad losers. A certain red liveried team had in the not so distant past a secret deal with the FIA to block any technical changes they did not like. Don't remember the Gazzetta complaining about that one. Where did they get these figures from anyway?
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of the head of the red team complaining about rules that can't be policed while blatantly breaking that rule - not a "gentlemen's agreement", but an actual written rule. Who's to say that other teams did not also break this agreement as well?
It's Formula1, everybody cheats, everybody has team orders. Then they let their PR departments sort it out!:)
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