The situation in Monaco is such that you would swear up and down there is no race this weekend. The news and events unfolding on the political side are very fluid and the situation has begun to fall apart. The teams have met with the FIA in an attempt to agree on the 2010 regulations and rules and for the second straight time, they have come up short of meeting in the middle.
In a statement made earlier by Ferrari President Luca Di Montezemolo, it was understood that heading into the meeting this afternoon FOTA would put up a united front in an effort to preserve the Formula 1 series and come to a common agreement with one Max Mosley. That did not happen. For the second straight meeting the FIA and FOTA are in a dead lock over the regulations and once again the meeting was described as constructive. Yet again however, we the fans are left asking what is next for our sport.
As posted on Formula1blog.com, the Italian press has come out and said that the event promoter for the Monaco Grand Prix would not sign any contract that would have the race back on the calendar if Ferrari was not a part of F1. The credibility of the news source or the statement at this time is not 100% but if in fact that statement was made, that puts things onto a whole new level. Formula 1 has been losing the legacy events that made it so popular for the last few years. In Bernie’s quest to fatten his own pockets he has pretty much made no one event count more so than the other. However with that said, the loss of Monaco would be devastating on not only a fan’s perspective, but also a sponsorship perspective. While not the best race on the calendar, the Monaco Grand Prix is the crown jewel of the calendar and the closest thing to an Indy 500 the series has. The loss of Monaco and Ferrari assets would destroy the sport. The quality of teams and circuits being put on both the grid and calendar are not strong enough to save the series. One must ask themselves what it is that Max Mosley is doing and why he is so hell bent on destroying Formula 1. If the Monaco promoter holds true to his word and the other teams remain united in the fight, there is no reason to believe that this standoff will be able to continue. There is far too much on the line and even Max Mosley knows what is at stake here. He is a man who likes to make money and if he loses his two highest value assets…he does not make that money. Plain and simple logic is all one needs to figure the problem out. Unfortunately, Max does not always think rationally.
The teams and Max are to meet once again tomorrow which offers two ways to think about this. Either the teams and Max are getting close to an agreement and the FOTA folks are working to meet a middle point with the FIA, or the folks of FOTA are going to continue to pressure until things go their way which would mean that there is no median the two parties are working towards. Either way the next 24 hours shall prove to be very interesting in regards to the fat e of this series.