Tons of news today...
The Lotus Cars company has followed the Brabham family in distancing itself and threatening legal action against a proposed Formula One team bearing its name.
It emerged last week that 'Team Lotus' could return to the grid next year in the form of British F3 team Litespeed, who said they were granted permission to use the name from rights holder David Hunt.
Hunt, who bought Team Lotus from the bankrupt outfit at the end of 1994, is the brother of the 1976 world champion James Hunt.
However, Lotus Cars Limited, the ongoing sports car maker that is based on the company founded by Colin Chapman in 1952, clarified on Wednesday that it is in no way associated with the prospective 2010 team.
"Group Lotus plc will take all necessary steps to protect its name, reputation and brand image," it said in a statement.
There was more bad news for a 2010 F1 hopeful on Wednesday, when it was rumoured that Superfund, the Austrian investment company, may have been struck off the FIA's list due to the emergence of an unpaid debt relating to motor racing of nearly 4m Euros.
Renault has warned its suppliers that it may not be racing in Formula One beyond the 2009 season.
At the same time as that news emerged on Wednesday, the French carmaker's CEO Carlos Ghosn was aiming fire not at the controversial budget cap rules for 2010, but at the distribution of income.
According to AFP, he told a French parliamentary committee that because the teams ‘make the show’ in F1, they should be the ones benefiting ‘principally from it’.
Until now, while issues of governance have been playing a role in the dispute with Max Mosley, it was believed that the teams' threats to quit Formula One were based primarily on their distaste for the new regulations.
But Ghosn said: "It is us who make the show, who bring the technology, the engines, who engage the pilots, so if we make the show, it is necessary that the income returns to us."
Germany's motorsport-total.com, meanwhile, revealed that external suppliers of Renault's Enstone-based team received a letter early this week warning that the outfit's participation in the sport beyond 2009 cannot be guaranteed, suggesting that they look elsewhere for business.
“Renault Sport can no longer be sure of its long-term business outlook in the face of these challenges,†the letter read. “Renault Sport must not only substantially reduce its activity, budget and therefore its list of suppliers, but may even decide, in the worst case scenario, as mentioned by Bernard Rey and Flavio Briatore in 13 May, not to compete in the Formula 1 World Championship in 2010.â€
“Given this context and in the interests of offsetting any possible drop in business volumes on our part for you firm, it is your prerogative to adopt whatever measures you see fit to ensure the continuity of your business, such as commencing a search for alternative clients, other markets or diversifying.â€
It was also reported on Wednesday that Toyota's currently Cologne-based Team Principal Tadashi Yamashina is set to relocate the position to Japan and commute to races.
As the final 24 hours until the publication of the 2010 entry list beckons, the eight rebel Formula One teams known collectively as FOTA met once again in London.
"I still believe that a reasonable solution can be found," Mercedes-Benz's Norbert Haug is quoted as saying by Germany's DPA news agency.
The current state of affairs as FOTA met on Wednesday was the ongoing stalemate between the body and the FIA, led by a seemingly equally obstinate Max Mosley.
Mosley wrote to FOTA this week, requesting that the unconditional status of the FOTA teams' entries be dropped, and McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh suggested to Auto Motor und Sport that the association's reply was ‘very constructive’.
However, Mosley's demands were not met, raising the prospect that marquee names including Ferrari and McLaren will be left off the entry list when it is published on Friday.
But speculation suggests that, due to existing (albeit disputed) agreements, Ferrari and the Red Bull teams might actually be named on the FIA's June 12th document.
The possibility led Ferrari's Stefano Domenicali to issue a media statement late Wednesday, insisting that if a compromise with the FIA is not reached imminently then Ferrari cannot be confirmed on the list of confirmed 2010 teams.
“Ferrari’s position has not changed," he said. "Back on 29 May, we put in a conditional entry with the other teams that make up FOTA. Along with this entry, we put forward to the FIA a package of proposals which included among other elements, a significant reduction in costs.
As always, we will do all we can to find a solution that is acceptable to all parties."
"If this is not possible, then the FIA will not be able to include Ferrari in the list of teams entered for the 2010 FIA Formula 1 World Championship," he concluded.
Although it is more than seven months until the first race of next season, there is a risk that June 12th could be the day on which a split became inevitable.
"If ten (non-FOTA) teams are given an entry there's a major problem," Ross Brawn said in Turkey last week. "So I hope – even if it's a holding position until we can sort this out – I hope there's a solution."
Domenicali agreed: "If you want to be sensible you can discuss whatever you want up until next year. But we need to find a solution as soon as possible."
It is arguable in whose court the ball currently lies, but as it is the FIA President who proposes revolutionising the rules, Italy's La Stampa newspaper observes: "Mr Mosley risks passing into history as the man who destroyed Formula One."
In what is no doubt an eleventh-hour effort to stave off the possibility of a breaway championship, Max Mosley is meeting with the FOTA members in London on Thursday as the F1 world waits for the outcome.
Less than 24 hours before the FIA publishes the entry list for the 2010 World Championship, a standoff that saw the eight 'rebel' teams lodge only conditional entries by the recent deadline is still yet to be resolved.
The Formula One Teams Association, whose expelled members Williams and Force India broke ranks and signed up unconditionally for next year's season, met in London also on Wednesday.
The remaining FOTA members, comprising Ferrari, McLaren, Renault, Toyota, BMW, Brawn, Red Bull and Toro Rosso, do not accept FIA President Mosley's budget cap plans, and also want a new Concorde Agreement signed immediately.
The danger of Friday's entry list is that it could lock the rebel teams out of Formula One, pushing them into following through with their threat to set up a rival series.
Mosley this week urged the FOTA teams to drop the conditional status of their entries before Friday, and we reported on Wednesday that the Briton also wrote a separate letter to Ferrari.
It emerges that, in the letter, Mosley softened his stance in several areas, including agreeing to taper the cap from 100m to 45m euros over the 2010-2011 period, agreeing to shortly sign a new Concorde Agreement, and - believed to be at the teams' behest - renaming the budget cap provisions to "financial regulations."
He also confirmed speculation that another highly-paid employee per team, for example Red Bull's car designer Adrian Newey, can be left outside the cap.
Christian Horner on Thursday flatly denied rumours that the two Red Bull teams have broken ranks and signed up unconditionally for next year's Formula One world championship.
Like fellow independents Williams and Force India, who have already lodged their paperwork and will appear on Friday's FIA entry list, Red Bull and Brawn GP are not subject to the same $50m bond that is holding together the unity of the remainder of the FOTA group.
Williams and Force India were expelled from the Formula One Teams Association, but the defection of Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso would leave the alliance weakened with just six members: the major car manufacturers plus the dominant Brawn GP quad.
Red Bull mogul Dietrich Mateschitz's loyalty to FOTA has been questioned from the very beginning of the dispute with Max Mosley, as he is a close personal friend of the FIA President.
But Horner, Team Principal of Mateschitz's senior F1 team, shot down the speculation, telling motorsport-total.com that it is ‘not true at all’.
However, it remains possible that the Red Bull outfits - as well as Ferrari - will be listed along with Williams and Force India on the FIA entry list, due to the teams' apparent contractual arrangements with the sport's ruling bodies.
Looks like the FOTA is holding their ground so far and the FIA was expecting them to fold at this point...
even if the FOTA is bluffing... they are holding their cards pretty close to their chest and making Max and co. sweat a bit
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