FOTA VS. FIA: ALL-OUT WAR.(NEWS)

Byline: Nigel Roebuck

D-Day for Formula One has been on the horizon many times this year, but it finally arrived on June 18, a date that may prove crucial in Grand Prix racing history.

Talk has centered for months on the possibility of a breakaway series launched by the Formula One Teams Associationmade up of Ferrari, McLaren-Mercedes, Renault, Toyota, BMW Sauber, Brawn GP, Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rossoand on June 18, such a move took a big step toward becoming reality.

FIA president Max Mosley previously decreed that the final 2010 F1 entry list would be finalized on that date, and the FIA announced on June 12 that new teams fielded by Team U.S. F1, Campos Grand Prix and Manor Grand Prix, which had kept its entry secret, would line up next to the established players next year.

But the FOTA teams submitted their entries on a conditional basis, subject to their being satisfied with the technical and sporting rules, especially the "cost-cap guidelines. Mosley predictably declined to budge and said the teams should submit unconditional entries (as Williams F1 and Force India did, citing contractual obligations) and work with the FIA to define future regulations. The day before the deadline, FOTA members met and concluded that they could not agree to Mosley's wishes.

As things stand, FOTA will kiss the FIA good-bye at the end of 2009 and will organize a 2010 championship of its own. The FIA says that the teams are legally bound to it and that it will seek vindication in court.

Over the British Grand Prix weekend, it became clear that what began as a fight about budget caps, two-tier rules and the like (Competition, June 15) has distilled to the question of the FIA's governance of F1: FOTA no longer wants to work with Mosley. If he steps down as FIA president, it's possible that the teams and the governing body could patch things up and continue with F1 as we know it. But Mosley, as demonstrated by his response last year to a scandal that exposed his sexual proclivities, likes a fight. He is unlikely to resignunless F1 commercial boss Bernie Ecclestone, concerned about his business, hangs him out to dry.