F1 » FIA versus FOTA: F1 breakaway news round-up

Fota are idiots if they expect people to believe that they can set up a championship in only half a year

The fia should of brought a cap in years ago, a cap for how many manufacturers can enter f1 in the first place, since they've come in they have ruined f1, real proper teams like Jordan, Minardi, Arrows and Stewart have disappeared because of them.

The last couple of arguments that have broke out in f1 have involved ferrari and they started this 1 too, let them leave f1 and try set up a championship, that would go ****ways too as they'd break out in a power struggle for that

@Alan - don't despair. You can still watch the Terrence and Phillip, I mean Bernie and Max Show (without Ferrari). Most of us will gladly watch a series not influenced by the two biggest idiots in F1.

What's so special about setting up an alternate championship. Lot's of work, yes. Lots of work can be done by lots of people. Those people are not hard to find considering how deep are the pockets of FOTA and much media is going to pay for coverage.
I just hope FOTA members are smart enough to stay united in what they do and let common sense to prevail.

Plus, I forgot to say, F1 heritage is with FOTA. Fans, circuits, TV companies, everything is right there for them.

All day on the news programs I've been hearing experts wheeled out talking about the split, and the history, and the brand, and what it all means, but none of these commentators ever spoke about what the fans want. YEs looking at the various forums it is clear there is a huge groundswell of support for FOTA going its own way.

No real mention of this on F1's web site. FIA has ruined F1. It pretty much started last year, those calls against Hamilton were just f'n crazy.

I just keep thinking that if I were that concerned about costs, can I say it's value for money to pay for a new organisation to mirror an existing one, to run a series of cars that are similar to the thing I've just left? And my big draw to the circuits is I'll come along once a year, and race for one weekend.

Got to say that personally I think the FIA has the advantage - the setup, the access to multiple series of racing to provide track revenue (I count 10 track series that they run - so thats at least 4 weekends more revenue for the tracks than FOTA), the safety record and access to cheap(er) insurance.

And all this from a Ferrari fan to boot!

One thing that could derail FOTA is TV rights. The smartest decision Bernie ever made was to ensure that F1 is on free-to-air TV in its major markets. It gives it visibility, access to new fans who might not otherwise see the sport, a wider audience to sell to sponsors (don't forget that the FOTA teams will have contracts with their sponsors based on F1 FTA audiences), and, in a less concrete sense, “respectability” as a major sport. If FOTA forgets that lesson, it won't kill it - A1GP ticks along quite happily - but it will hand the FIA an advantage it needn't have.

F1 has been joke for many years, but a split is not the way to fix it.

You are a deluded fool if you think things will be any better in a break away series.

Just look to the CART/IRL split for the damage that can be done.

I also agree with Alan, setting up a credible championship in 8-9 months is highly unlikely.

The biggest difference between the CART/IRL and this proposed split is that the backing of the manufacturers can sway sponsors to support the FOTA series regardless if it's F1 or not. If it was only privateer teams like Force India and Toro Rosso splitting, the FIA would have no real concern, but the manufacturers bring in a lot of the money and sponsors so the FIA ought to be concerned.

I am doubtful also if FOTA can set up a legitimate series by the start of 2010, but those that say the FIA has all the cards need to look at how much the manufacturers bring to the series. It's not like there's a huge line of other manufacturers waiting to enter the series.