http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/76292

VERY bad news IMO.

FIRST! lol

I truly can't believe it. For the longest time, I thought it was going to happen. Then after the FIA made their press releases and quoted all those letters, I figured they had won.

Kudos to FOTA for coming out with it today and not making us wait until tomorrow.

The bad news is, there will be WAAAAAAAY more press about the FOTA-FIA split now, than the racing, going forward.

The good news is, it's kind of interesting.

I will remain sceptical over this announcement until at least early evening tomorrow. I think it's notable FOTA have made their announcement Thursday evening. That leaves all of Friday (deadline day) for the FIA to respond and offer further concessions. I'd be stunned if the FIA top bods are not up all night deciding what to do to keep FOTA onboard.

Let's see where we are at this time Friday evening, the position may not be the same then.

history in the making, lets wake up all the F1 fans sleeping, amazing cant believe it

EDIT

I agree its not certain that it will go through, nevertheless, finally the teams put their foot down and said no more, mad max. Enough is enough and that is a first

Holy cow weird time of day to announce that !

Hmm.. nothing to say really, let's wait and see what happens. Just getting a foot in the discussion in this historic moment.

Okay its final now.............our beloved 'formula one' is officially dead......and the killer?----Max (the mother ####ing) mosley.

I'll believe it when I see it. I am glad though it seems they want to bring it back to the people!

5 minutes late, see the other breakaway thread ;P

And that's about it for the humorous part...
TERRIBLE news. I hope Imperial is right and it's not as final as it sounds - there is still Friday to negotiate. One thing is certain: no one is gonna care about the FP's tomorrow, I bet atmosphere at the circuit will be pretty bizarre.

See my post above for my own thinking over the timing of this announcement...

bernie's indigestion just got a little worse.

do ya think bernie is wondering just how long before he cuts max lose and starts to limit his financial loss or keep his mettle.

my bet he keeps it a little longer at least publically but behind the scenes he have a communication channel open with FOTA.

I agree its not certain that it will go through, nevertheless, finally the teams put their foot down and said no more, mad max. Enough is enough and that is a first

hahahahaha....im excited. It could turn out bad or it could be great. But im excited....change is in the air.



I always told you guys... I told you .... they might just do it

they might just do it lol

Bernie has been way too silent to have been out of the loop. Remember he pretty much sold all his F1 stake, I m willing to bet if the FOTA thing goes ahead he' ll be in on it

what we want now is for FOTA to publish a interim calandar of races for next year along with their already stated intentions for 2010 regulations

Great news! F-1 without Max and Bernie!

It was never beloved to me. Not since the introduction of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship in 1981.

Holy crap...


It's exactly the right time to announce it. Tomorrow's papers still have time to carry it. This is going to dominate the news from Silverstone tomorrow morning.

The other thing is that the press release is pretty affirmative. It doesn't leave much room for negociation. It's in the future tense (will) and not in the conditional.

I care about the fp, I have some money riding on this gp!

But it is not F1, in effect we will have two championships, how is that good.

Seconded. And i think anyway there will only be one championship i can´t see how the new "FIA" teams will find funds when there is a rivaling FOTA championship.

Bjørn

I still think it's an idle threat.

This is great if it works out! No more Spanky or Bernie!

Let's hope Williams doesn't have a contract like ferrari which states they can only race in 1 championship. (not that that would stand in european court)

Interesting... I wonder what sort of series the FOTA will come up with. Hopefully it won't be yet another spec-series with manufacturer logos on the car.

probably not, that would be the FIA one.

Great news, although Im sure they will change their minds if the pervert bends over to their demands, which I think he might eventually.

"This series will have transparent governance, one set of regulations, encourage more entrants and listen to the wishes of the fans, including offering lower prices for spectators worldwide, partners and other important stakeholders.

The major drivers, stars, brands, sponsors, promoters and companies historically associated with the highest level of motorsport will all feature in this new series."

HAHAHAhahaha!

So happy this was no bluff!

that ^^ is an excellent start if you ask me. There's nothing I ve hated more than the vast expanses of empty grandstands

Hopefully this won't be as bad as the CART-IRL split. I think it won't be. There, Tony George and the IRL held the big prize in their hands: the Indy 500. I don't see Bernie and Max holding similar cards. People watch F1 for the best cars and drivers, not because of the FIA, and not because it is called "Formula One." I really don't see what leverage FIA and Bernie have here, except inertia, unless there are clauses in contracts that would prevent current tracks and broadcasters from getting involved with a breakaway series.

While I don't doubt Autosport, I'll wait for an official statement by FOTA before I truly believe it..........and even then I may wait until Saturday to believe it. If it is going to happen, that's absolutely huge news

O shit!

Not good! GREAT!!!
We'll get a race every week end, true one of them will be F3 level!

Holy Mo Fuc shitttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt

My god! FOTA Indeed have balls. I imagined they were going to roll up and kneel before MAX! But they are showing what they are capable off!!!

This is tremendous. BERNIE will have sleepless nights now!!

Dude, did you not notice this bit in the Autosport news report:

"The teams cannot continue to compromise on the fundamental values of the sport and have declined to alter their original conditional entries to the 2010 World Championship," said a statement.

things are gonna get messy now......................folks the court rooms will be all full for the next 9 months

I never really thought the teams would go through with this but a FOTA run series has the potential to be fantastic and rid F1 of all its problems (FIA/Bernie related) in one go.

I'm glad they are standing up and saying no more to the FIA, something has to change.. and now i think it will.

They never wanted the spec series that Maxie wants!

Who will be the "governance"?!?

It's late and I'm very tired, that's my (poor) excuse, i realise now yes. Personally I still want to wait until Saturday as the deadline will have passed.

Yeah, pretty much everything in the article is THE STATEMENT so far ('more to follow').


Christ, I bet 'more' is to follow. Shit might have just officially hit the fan.

I really cant think of any negatives of substance for a FOTA series. The only one is that they might not race on a few of the last remaining tracks, but Bernie has gotten rid of most of them anyway.

Oh dear, Max will be spitting nails. I wonder if he will still make an appearance at Silverstone tomorrow as threatened.

He might be wise to borrow a set of body armour in case the fans get hold of him.

I'm on your side anyway.

I'll believe it at 5pm tomorrow night if nothing has changed in the interim.

Wow they finally did it.

It's gonna be one hell of a weekend.. for all the wrong reasons, again.

Sounds great, I like the bit about lower prices, hopefully less races in asia too. Looks like Silverstone may be back!

God, this is going to end in tears. Its going to be the same as in the US with the split. The only difference in this case is that there is nothing like NASCAR to trump either F1 or the Grand Prix World Championship.

At this stage you have to wonder wether the manufacturers will try to court more teams to come over and even have a go off getting the likes of Lola, Panoz and other chassis manufacturers to have a go.

I still think this isn't going to happen btw and is nothing more than a stunt by FOTA.

Offcourse there is still the Ferrari and Redbull signing up to both championship issue. intresting also to see what lola, prodrive etc will do.

Not at all! All the European tracks are free to hold any race they wish! And the North American tracks are not committed with Bernie either!