While the initial shot from FOTA is still being felt by most fans of Formula 1, FOTA have already began moving forward with their new series. Max Mosley’s threat of legal action against those forming a breakaway series has had little to no affect on those who have already made the decision. This week will prove to be an interesting news week as we have a WMSC meeting scheduled for Wednesday and what would appear to be a FOTA rebuttal meeting on Thursday. There were some very strong words this…
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F1 – British Grand Prix
With all of the talk based around FOTA and a breakaway series, many may have not even realized that one of the crown jewel events on the F1 calendar were taking place. What better weekend for the British crowd then hometown boy Jenson Button coming home with a hefty points lead and a seemingly bullet proof car. Things however, did not work out how Brawn GP had hoped for their homecoming. Red Bull Racing came to Britain with loads of upgrades including a completely different aerodynamics package. Sebastian Vettel took…
Read MoreF1 – FIA Responds with Lawyers
The FIA has now released a statement which threatens the FOTA teams with legal action. This is no surprise since the FIA has already hinted in the past that they would pursue such recourse if necessary. The FIA’s lawyers have now examined the FOTA threat to begin a breakaway series. The actions of FOTA as a whole, and Ferrari in particular, amount to serious violations of law including willful interference with contractual relations, direct breaches of Ferrari’s legal obligations and a grave violation of competition law. The FIA will be…
Read MoreF1 – Is F1 Viable Without FOTA?
First we have to ask if Ferrari, RBR & STR will be part of both F1 and FOTA1 since they will most likely still be listed on the entry list when it comes out today. Look for these three teams to file breach of contract lawsuits against the FIA immediately after the entry list is posted. But let’s assume that all 8 FOTA teams will be exclusive to the new breakaway series. Lola and N Technologies have withdrawn their entries from consideration which may be the start of a disturbing…
Read MoreF1 – Why So Quiet Bernie?
This is the sport that Bernie and Max brought to prominence. It has been Bernie’s life for decades. Mr. Ecclestone has proven to all that he is an unimaginably shrewd and capable businessman. So, why has he stood by the sidelines while Max and FOTA scuttled the ship? We can only make conjecture at this point. Bernie did make a statement this morning, “You’ll have to ask Max about it. For me, this situation is just back to the future.” Maybe referring to how he and Max gained control of…
Read MoreF1 – FOTA’s Gambit
We here at Open Paddock have been pretty shy about jumping on the F1 media train for the last couple months since the politics of F1 have overshadowed the racing. But this situation has finally come to a head, so let’s discuss. Is this a page out of Max’s handbook of extreme bargaining tactics, or is that FOTA’s final word? Max has become a broken record when it comes to negotiations. He comes out with a monstrously extreme position that is only intended to make the other bargaining party enter…
Read MoreF1 – FOTA Missile Crisis
In what seems to be straight out of the 1960s history books, we are again faced with two rival powers who are hell bent on changing the face of motorsport as we know it. Autosport Magazine has published a story that has FOTA forming a breakaway championship. Well Shaun…what are you talking about? It is simple to be honest, the war of words between FOTA and the FIA has blown into all out chaos as only the F1 circus can bring it to you. As we have followed for the…
Read MoreIndyCar – Sad Entry List for Iowa
The IndyCar series has taken many hits this year, from the down economy to the poor racing at Kansas, Indy and Texas. But the most telling indicator of the health of the series remains the unstable car counts from race to race. At Texas, we had a season high of 24 cars (apart from Indy) which followed the season low of 21 at Milwaukee. Well, this weekend for Iowa appears to be more of the same. Only 20 cars showed up on the entry list. No part time entries were…
Read MoreF1 – Lola Withdraws Bid
Max Mosely attempted to dazzle the world by announcing that no less than 15 bids for entry into the 2010 F1 Championship were lodged, all as a result of his amazing new plan to reshape F1. Nevermind the fact that the last time the FIA opened up the entry process, 22 teams bid to enter, but not a single one ended up making the grid the following season. Further tarnishing Max’s excitement is the potential departure of the eight FOTA teams, including Ferrari and McLaren. In the midst of heated…
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