NURBURGRING, Germany — Formula One’s leading teams revived their threat to form a breakaway series on Thursday despite the sport’s governing body insisting that a deal to end the long-running saga over regulations could be reached in days.
F1’s fragile peace was thrown into doubt again Wednesday when the Formula One Teams Association walked out of a meeting with the FIA after being told they had not been entered into the 2010 championship and would have no say in finalizing cost-cutting measures.
“We cannot sit back and wait. We have to keep all options open,” BMW Sauber motorsport director Mario Theissen said Thursday from the site of the upcoming German Grand Prix. “And that means we have to look at the other points as well. We have to prepare for all possibilities.”
Earlier, FIA issued a statement — titled “Setting the Record Straight” — in response to the teams’ walkout in which it said that ongoing negotiations would yield a solution quickly.
“I would call (that) optimistic,” said Theissen, who added that negotiations were ongoing. Although there had been progress “there are still some irritating efforts that have surprised us.”
The irritation appears to be FIA president Max Mosley, whose insistence on possibly running for a fifth term could be a stumbling block.
In negotiating a solution last month, the teams signed on to reduce costs to 1990s levels if the 69-year-old lawyer agreed to stand aside until his term ended in October. But FOTA’s rush to celebrate that coup appears to have stirred Mosley and thrown everything into doubt.
“I’m not aware of anyone dancing on his grave,” said Theissen, who needed a few moments to say “no comment” when asked if Mosley’s re-election would kill negotiations.
FIA said Thursday that Mosley had twice made Ferrari president Luca di Montezemelo aware that the five teams who had signed up unconditionally to 2010 regulations — Williams, Force India, US F1, Campos Meta and Manor Grand Prix — would set those rules.
Ferrari, McLaren, Renault, Toyota, Red Bull, Toro Rosso and Brawn GP all lodged conditional entries that they considered validated once they were admitted, which would allow them to vote.
“The entered teams have a contract with the FIA not even the General Assembly or World Council can abrogate,” FIA’s statement read. “Anyone with an elementary knowledge of motor sport governance knows this. To suggest FOTA were only made aware of this during the meetings of yesterday is quite simply untrue.”
Theissen didn’t expect a solution at the Nurburgring, and said negotiations with Bernie Ecclestone would continue even though the commercial rights boss praised Adolf Hitler’s leadership in an interview.
“Obviously wrong,” Theissen said in reference to the comments, which Ecclestone has since apologized for. “Disgusting. Apparently he was shocked himself when he was confronted with what he said.”
F1 drivers were also losing interest in a saga spawned out of the global financial crisis that has turned into a long-running soap opera of mudslinging proportions.
“You lose interest reading these stories. Things seem to go up and down all the time,” Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen said. “It changes every day.”
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