The Formula One Teams' Association looks set for a difficult few months of strained relations, as the collaboration between teams to work on the future of the sport is threatened by the early-season diffuser row.
FOTA was set up last season by the team bosses of all ten F1 constructors, in an effort to bring together a unified strategy for the direction that Formula One should take, both in terms of rule changes and cost-cutting measures. Initially, despite cynicism from onlookers, the association was described as showing an "unprecedented unity" between the rivals, and they helped to challenge the FIA on a number of issues, including the standardisation of parts and Bernie Ecclestone's efforts to change the points system. However, since the whole diffuser hassle that has dominated the political side of the sport so far this year, the relationships between teams in FOTA has become more and more strained, after the diffuser designs of Brawn GP, Toyota and Williams were declared legal by the FIA last week, with Renault gasbag Flavio Briatore in particular aiming plenty of venom at Ross Brawn's team.
Crazy Flavio claimed over the Chinese weekend that he was planning an official protest to the FIA to block the payment of TV money to the Brawn team. "Since [Ross] Brawn was our technical delegate, and he forces me to spend money I don't have in my budget, and since Honda's money have luckily not been shared yet, we'll have a meeting," he spat all over a reporter, going on to say that he didn't believe Brawn were entitiled to the TV money earmarked for the defunct Honda team, because Ross Brawn has effectively set up a brand new team.
Many members of FOTA now say that the current issues swarming around F1 could make it impossible for the group to keep the same sense of unity they had before.
"I think it is unquestionably a challenge," Williams CEO Adam Parr. dscribed as an "idiot" by Briatore over the weekend, admitted, "When you have got common interests, it is relatively easy to work together.
"I think that is harder now, simply because the reality of what we do is that the stuff on the track is so fundamental and so important that it is very difficult to think about the longer term bigger picture while you are fighting it out there. So, I am hoping that we will now pick ourselves up and gradually pull back together again."
Parr insists that the teams must leave the diffuser issue in the past if FOTA is to become a lasting success. "I think when we next get together, it has to be on the basis that what has happened has happened and we are moving on," he grimaced, "One of the things that I feel quite strongly about is that it is going to be very soon that all of the teams have adopted the diffuser designs, and then the competitive order will change unless teams like Williams are able to really push on with development. So the situation is going to change very quickly and I hope we can maintain the bigger picture."
Meanwhile, moustachioed BMW boss Mario Theissen agreed that FOTA faces a stern test. "It doesn't make it easier, definitely," Theissen stated rather obviously, "So far we have successfully kept apart the work on the future direction of the sport and on the other hand the operational daily business at the race track. This is definitely a test to FOTA."
Christian Horner of Red Bull wanted the situation sorted behind closed doors, stating that: "I think it needs to be discussed within FOTA, it isn't healthy for the teams to be in this predicament but we need to look inwardly and discuss it. It will certainly be a test."
Many will claim that this sort of bitchy infighting was exactly what the FIA would have hoped for when they declared the diffusers legal, distracting FOTA from their main task of twisting the thorn in the FIA's side in favour of pointless infighting. Either way, it looks like diffusergate didn't end it's effect on the sport in the courtroom last week.
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