Red Bull echo Toyota’s boycott talk
May 11, 2009 by Negative Camber
Filed under Parc Fermé
Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz says that Red Bull will join Toyota in exiting the series if the current 2010 FIA regulations are not changed. He also says that they are not alone in this sentiment:
“Conditions at the moment are not so, that we would enter a team for next year,” Red Bull team owner Dietrich Mateschitz, at the Spanish Grand Prix this weekend, said in an interview that will be published by Austria’s Salzburger Nachrichten newspaper on Monday.
The billionaire suggested that the other ‘manufacturer teams’ will also not take part. “Of the teams now, only two or three will remain,” Mateschitz added
Interestingly this is a team who is not a manufacturer and more like Williams F1. Sir Frank voiced his concern over a two-tier system of regulations earlier this week, along with Ferrari and BMW, but stopped short of saying they would leave the series if the regulations were not changed. Red Bull, a privateer like Force India and Williams F1 for all intensive purposes, is the first “small” team to suggest departing the series unless the FIA’s Max Mosley makes serious efforts to work with FOTA and change the regulations as presented. This leaves little doubt that the FOTA is perhpas indeed considering a boycott of the application date as a show of force and this hunch is corroborated by McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh who suggested that public threats by the teams is not helping the matter at hand.
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Not crazy about the method of all of this madness. I hope Max doesn’t cost the series a race or two, or a manufacturer or two.
According to Didi; it could cost him all but two or three teams. We’ll see.
The whole cost cap thing is not enforcable nor should it be. Toyota has proven you can spend billions and not win. Nice to see FOTA standing united against the robber barons.
There comes a time when some people should let go the control they have for the good of the sport. I think Max and Bernie at this point are having a very negative effect on the sport as a whole.
This may lead to a destructive time in F1 where it could be damaged by loss of fans, sponsors ,teams etc.. This has occured in other forms of motorsport and it’s never good.
I think this could cost much more than a race or two.
Money in this sport needs to be redistributed with much less to FOM for sure. I’ve always thought F1 was supposed to be the pinnacle of motorsport. Creating a two tier system or a splitting the series up will dilute the interest in F1. Bernie will lose his beloved revenue stream by his own devices.
It’s time for a change of the guard in F1!
(I’d still take a date with Tamara even despite dad)
The question becomes… if there is the real threat of a breakaway, as seems that its much stronger today than it was in 2005, how will the FIA members handle that? Does it cost Max a vote of no-confidence once all those little organizations realize they’re handout money once the big financial players are no longer taking part?
oh oh oh… OR the IRL suddenly gets a ton of new players!
Worse yet it could be NASCAR getting these drivers. Seems that most forms of racing are now geared towards young little jockey type drivers. There ought to be a driver allowance of a certain weight/size limit or something in a lot of forms of racing.(another issue) I find stock cars generally boring until they hit a roadcourse. But Indy type racing has been already saturated with wannabe F1 drivers like Bourdais.
I just hope they(FIA/FOM/FOTA)and sponsors can work towards a positive future for F1.
What should be the future objectives of F1?
*I think a petition asking for the Berie/Max retirement should be started on the web.
It might help.
The FIA’s days are numbered. It made sense when auto racing was for aristocratic amateurs. But in the era of commercialized racing — each profitable series is bound to create its own officiating arm that works only in the interest of the series’ owners.
Web petition for retirement.
http://www.webpetitions.com/cgi-bin/print_petition.cgi?99504409