The make-up of next year’s Formula One grid remains uncertain, despite the sport’s governing body, the FIA, today publishing the 2010 entry list.
All of the entries from the current teams have been included, but those from championship leading team Brawn, McLaren, BMW Sauber, Renault and Toyota are only provisional and are dependent on those teams removing the conditions that they applied to their entries not later than close of business on 19 June, two days before the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
This effectively means that the FIA has bought more time, both for itself and for the teams, to try to negotiate a compromise. Or rather, from the FIA’s point of view, for everyone to fall into line with what it wants.
Everyone must follow the FIA!
The entries from Williams and Force India have been accepted as they submitted unconditional entries. Ferrari, Red Bull and Toro Rosso have also been accepted, despite them having submitted conditional entries, on the grounds that the FIA believes it already has binding contracts with these teams which they signed a few years ago. The teams dispute this, saying that the terms under which they signed have been broken.
In response to the publication of the entry list, Ferrari has said that its entry remains conditional and that it can’t be forced to race in F1 next year. A statement from the team said: “Ferrari submitted on 29 May 2009 an entry to the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship which is subject to certain conditions. As of today, these conditions have not been met.
Ferrari are not happy
“Notwithstanding this and despite Ferrari’s previous written notice to the FIA not to do so, the FIA has included Ferrari as an unconditional participant in next year’s Formula One World Championship.
“For the avoidance of any doubt, Ferrari reaffirms that it shall not take part in the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship under the regulations adopted by the FIA in violation of Ferrari’s rights under a written agreement with the FIA.”
Red Bull and Toro Rosso have issued similar statements, saying that they would not accept an unconditional entry.
I won’t bore you with all the details of the dispute between the FIA and the teams again. Suffice to say, the FIA is introducing a budget cap to the sport in a way which it knows the existing teams find unacceptable but which is attractive to other teams wishing to enter F1.
It's a long and boring arguement
The most surprising thing about the entry list for 2010 is the names of the three new teams which have been accepted – Campos Grand Prix, Manor Grand Prix and Team US F1. The latter is a known quantity, in that it has been working on its F1 project for many years and announced its intentions many months ago. It has been set up by Ken Anderson, a former technical director of the old Ligier F1 team and journalist Peter Windsor. Campos and Manor are both existing teams, albeit in other categories of racing. Up until this year, Campos, which is run by former Minardi F1 driver Adrian Campos, has been competing in GP2 while Manor Motorsport has been successful in Formula Three for many years. Their F1 team is said to involve Manor boss John Booth, together with Nick Wirth, who ran the Simtek F1 team in the early nineties.
Manor who?
But the biggest surprise is omission of the Prodrive team, which nearly entered last year and was rumoured to be bringing the Aston Martin name back to F1. The team is competing at Le Mans this weekend and is apparently still in discussions with the FIA over a possible entry. If any of the existing teams do not withdraw their conditions of entry, then it will leave the door open for other new teams such as Prodrive.
So where does this leave us? Well, no further on really, except that we now have to wait another week until next Friday to see how the situation will resolve itself. It’s interesting that Max Mosley and the FIA have given the teams more time instead of rejecting their entries outright. It shows that they realise the importance of keeping these teams within the framework of Formula One and not leaving them to set up a rival series on their own.
Everyone's got a liitle more time
The teams have now written to the FIA’s Senate and World Motor Sport Council asking them to intervene in the row and to help find a swift solution. The letter apparently states that if this is not forthcoming, they will reluctantly have to seek alternative solutions…
Let’s hope that this doesn’t result in a stand-off at Silverstone, with teams refusing to race. There were rumours of a possible boycott by the teams in Turkey, but this proved groundless. However, we are swiftly arriving at a situation where anything seems possible. The atmosphere at Silverstone next weekend is going to be electric.
