In an act of predictability so tedious, it may as well have been scripted by Michael Bay, the Formula One Teams' Association is said to have written to the FIA asking for this Friday's entry deadline to be extended to July 1st.
With the FOTA members running out of time to reach a compromise with the governing body over the ongoing issue of the 2010 regulations, after the FIA told them that they must remove the conditions associated with their 2010 entries by this Friday or face expulsion, the request for a deadline extension was as predictable as it was a bit of a blow to the lengthy part of Patronise's GP preview which concentrates on the Friday deadline.
The teams have written a letter to Max Mosley and Bernie Ecclestone, which asks for the deadline to be put back in order for one last effort to resolve the ever-growing war of words. The teams believe that a delay to July 1st would allow time to draft and sign a new Concorde Agreement, which is one of the conditions the FOTA teams have imposed on their entries.
According to Reuters, the letter reads: "The time has come when, in the interests of the sport, we must all seek to compromise and bring an urgent conclusion to the protracted debate regarding the 2010 world championship. We hope that you will consider that this letter represents significant movement by the teams, all of whom have clearly stated a willingness to commit to the sport until the end of 2012.
"Now is the time to find a reasonable and rapid solution to the outstanding issues."
The letter not only asked for an extension, but also detailed some of the proposals from FOTA designed as alternatives to the unloved £40 million budget cap set down by the FIA. These were dismissed by the FIA in a meeting earlier in the week, with Mosley unhappy that the FOTA representatives that turned up had not had a mandate to discuss the FIA's current rules.
The letter says that: "We detect... that a solution might be possible based on the FOTA resource restriction proposal but with measures introduced," it rather oddly said ('resource restriction' being a fabulous turn of phrase designed to make 'cost-cutting' sound bad), adding that: "We would propose in this respect that we nominate a top firm of independent accountants who will devise an audit methodology that will be implemented by all of the teams.
"This methodology and the annual results would be disclosed to the FIA... we can see no reason why such a system based on objective verification of compliance would not be acceptable to all parties."
This is all, essentially, nothing new from the teams, and it is unclear precisely what they hope to achieve beyond giving Mosley the chance to invoke an extension to the deadline without looking like he has backed down.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
