Williams fails to sign up with Manufactuers!
Written by George Katinger · October 7, 2005
While this story can be construed as a silly season beat up, it has a ring of truth to it & hold serious long term implications for the direction of the sport. The failure of Sir Frank Williams to sign to the 2008 Manufacturers led break away “binding agreement” last Wednesday & his release of a statement placing himself as a fence sitter for the time being shows the precarious position that both sides & individual teams have placed themselves in. With Williams being the only independent team not to have committed to the FIA series & Bernie Ecclestone offering teams that sign a guaranteed 50% increase on existing income, the scoreboard reads FIA 4 teams vs GPMA 5 teams.
crash.net: Williams the next to join Bernie?
Despite much personal criticism directed at him, FIA President Max Mosley has always maintained, correctly, that although welcome to compete in F1, manufacturers can be their own & the sports worst enemy. In that manufacturers will spend excessively to achieve victory, raising the cost of competing to dangerously unsustainable levels & that manufacturers cannot be relied on to commit to the sport long term, coming & going as they choose. Similarly, Mosley maintains that a prerequisite condition for manufacturers for participation in the sport is the making available of affordable engines to the sports independent teams, who Mosley views as the backbone of the series, teams that regardless of the economic environment can be relied upon for participation year in year out.
While the manufacturers will argue that a 50 % increase in prize money is but a drop in the ocean of F1’s total revenues & that they would be better off financially with their own series, the offer in no way address’s the manufacturer’s desire for representation in the way the sport is governed & how regulation changes are brought about; take for example the recent objection of the manufacturers to the change to V8 engine format. The FIA is insisting that only it can determine the sports regulations impartially & objectively & should be independent has some bearing; even in the bitter FISA/FOCA war of the early 80’s, ironically led by Ecclestone & Mosley, the battle was over F1’s commercial rights & did not concentrate on the regulatory aspect of sport.
Were Williams to side with the FIA on this issue it would be an understandable move given his post BMW status, but also raise the question of where does the FIA propose to procure engines for its independent teams. Ferrari cannot be expected to fill the grid with power plants & would a one engine category have any appeal, notwithstanding Ferrari being first amongst equals in the performance & development department. Will the GPMA stand firm on its preparations & can the FIA promote a series of independent “garagistas” plus one “grandee” marque?
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Please note that the above posting was created by Peter Gillespie and erroneously filed under my name. I’m sure our readers will no doubt recognize Peter’s rapier writing technique as opposed to my blunter saber type approach. My apologies Peter, our technical guru is unavailable to make the repair until Monday.
Nice post, I’ll have a comment for you later.
With all the disarray the sport is in it makes you wonder why various countries are clammoring for an F1 date.
India has been talking since their first driver entered into F1, South Africa is talking, and now Greece is rumbling about building an F1 track.
They’d have one on Mars if the price was right - but Max insists that it’s not a fly-away race…