FOTA-FIA, new showdown?

La FIA est dans l?œil du cyclone. Deux mois après voir fait bien trop parlé d?elle, la fédération a lancé une nouvelle bombe dans le paddock. Et Toyota a été, ce week-end, la première à se jeter dans la brèche. Suite à la décision de la FIA de changer les règlements pour 2010, John Howett, patron de Toyota, a confié qu?il pourrait ne pas poursuivre l?aventure : « If the regulations remain at this stage, we will not be able to register for 2010 ". If the boss of the Japanese brand has nothing against a reduction in budgets, he is opposed to the rules which will give pride of place to “low cost” teams. Indeed, the FIA ​​regulations allow, in return for a limited budget, technological freedoms that the spending teams will not have. Therefore, all major manufacturers can question the merits of such a measure as well as their future in F1.

Dietrich Mateschitz, boss of Red Bull, also threatened not to continue the adventure in F1. The decisions taken during the FIA ​​World Council are therefore starting to make the paddock react. Who could go as far as arm wrestling with the federation. The Red Bull boss echoed the possibility of withdrawing at the end of the season in the columns of Salzburger Nachrichten: “ If the rules proposed for 2010 remain as they are, we will not participate in the F1 world championship in 2010. The constructor teams will not participate either. Of the current stables, there will only be two or three left. » The FIA ​​certainly wants less fortunate manufacturers to be able to join the paddock. But could not bear, in terms of images, to see most of the current major manufacturers withdraw. The compromise therefore seems unavoidable.

If, like Red Bull and Toyota, the teams express their strong opposition to the 2010 regulations, the FIA ​​could backtrack. The window for submitting applications for the 2010 championship will take place from May 22 to 29. It is within this time frame that the current teams and the FIA ​​will have to agree on the rules which will soon govern F1. Once again, threats of withdrawal will be the main weapon of the Formula 1 teams to make their voice heard.