The Formula One Teams' Association decided to impose a suspension on the ability of the Williams team to join in with their collaborative moaning and foot-dragging over the new regulations, following the team's decision to break ranks and sign up for 2010.
The suspension from FOTA is only temporary, but follows the decision by Williams earlier in the week to submit their entry to the 2010 season despite FOTA's plans to stand firm as a unit and refuse to enter unless the FIA meets with their list of nebulous demands.The ten current teams had been informed by FOTA in one of their meetings that any team caught submitting an entry would suffer this punishment, as well as having to sit at one of the cheap tables at the next post-race party. Possibly.
The decision to suspend Williams was taken during the latest in an interminable series of meetings between the teams, as they attempt to cement their unified position against the FIA's proposed voluntary budget cap for 2010 and beyond. After meetings at the Monaco Grand Prix, the teams wrote to Max Mosley and the FIA to inform them that they would only sign up to 2010 if the rules changes were removed.
Sir Frank Williams, glorious leader of his eponymous team, said that: "FOTA's decision, although regrettable, is understandable. However, as a racing team and a company whose only business is Formula 1, with obligations to our partners and our employees, submitting our entry to next year's championship was unquestionable.
"In addition, we are legally obliged under our contract with FOM and the FIA to participate in the World Championship until the end of 2012."
When they submitted their entry, Williams CEO Adam Parr had maintained that the team was still planning to work with FOTA, saying that: "The unity of FOTA is of paramount importance to Williams. Yesterday we joined the other members of FOTA in writing to the FIA (International Automobile Federation) to request a continuing effort to find a compromise concerning the regulations for 2010."
But that unity now appears to have been shattered, and the countdown to Friday's deadline for the submission of 2010 entries gets ever nearer.
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