F1 Fanatic

So I’m sure you’ll all have heared this new Redbull party line, Mark saying McLaren drivers will clash at some point, Horner saying the love in has to end soon. Seems like there trying to distract from publicity McLaren might get for it’s updates. Pointless really but I suppose McLaren did try to phyche Webber into reitiring early on.

Much more worrying is whatever Bernie’s been smoking recently.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/85059

Nothing will come of this unless FOTA really starts standing up to the man, a FOTA-FOM war is certainly not what the sport needs right now. However quiet F1 news is between weekends at the moment, unless Bernie’s just trying to create a bit of publicity lol, the man in charge of FOM saying there’s no place for FOTA in the sport is down right obcene.

The calm mood f1 is moving foward with, in that the politics is no longer some weird space opera is entirley down to the mature way in which Jean Todt and FOTA are leading the sport, Bernie the last remanant of the bad old days may be about to cause some trouble.

Wish there was no room for Bernie in the sport, or CVC.

Steph’s probably right about Webber and Horner answering questions. But it’s only normal for them to use every opportunity to put pressure on their competitors. McLaren is making fun of Red Bull as well and were keen to point out their problems (remember Ron Dennis thinking out loud about the Bahrain problems with Vettel, after Turkey comments made and a quip in the latest McLaren viral clip as well).

And Button and Lewis probably are acting their roles as best mates for the camera, but it’s hard to tell weather it runs much deeper than Massa and Alonso getting along well, even if it’s not as bad as Webber/Vettel and far from Alonso/Hamilton.

Bernie hitting out at the FOTA is only logical, look at this

“When the teams examine rules, everyone tries to get an advantage. The teams wanted to divide F1, but now they understand that it is good to give importance to the money that they get (from FOM). There is no space for FOTA… ”

Mosley also said theres no place for FOTA. But with Bernie it’s only about the money.

Nothing will come of this unless FOTA really starts standing up to the man, a FOTA-FOM war is certainly not what the sport needs right now.

Don’t kid yourself. The name might be Formula One Teams’ Association, but FOTA does not represent the teams. It is and always has been a manufacturer initiative, created for political reasons. Its ringleaders have always been people from manufacturer teams – like Luca di Montezemolo as president and John Howett as second in command – whilst every FOTA meeting has taken place and every important decision has been made on manufacturer territory. Last year, FOTA met on Flavio Briatore’s yacht, and then decided to back out of the championship after a meeting at Renault’s headquarters. FOTA (FOMA might be a more accurate name) has only ever existed to serve the manufacturers’ ends, with the other teams getting pulled into it because if they show disloyalty to one manufacturer, the others may be hesitant about pulling out. FOMA has hardly done anything at all this year, because of the demise of the manufacturer as an entity. Toyota, Honda and BMW have all gone. Renault have undertaken a restructure and are really a privateer team run under a manufacturer banner. And Mercedes are too busy starting up their Formula 1 team and sorting out their problems to be worried about political moves. FOMA represents everything that is wrong with the sport over the past decade: manufacturers taking control of the teams and butting heads with the Powers That Be simply because they don’t like the future plans. The FIA has moved to curtain spending, but the manufacturers know that they more they spend, the facter they will go. They will spend tens of millions of dollars just to pick up a single World Championship sport. The manufacturers have been slowly draining in the life out of the sport for years, in a much more subtle way than the FIA. The real problem is that the fans hate the FIA, therefore they support FOMA, meaning FOMA can do no wrong even though they’re having their own negative effect on the sport.

Or haven’t you noticed how there hasn’t been any politically-motivated bickering this season? The manufacturers have backed out, FOMA’s prominence has faded, and everyone (except Ferrari) is getting along. You might attribute that to Jean Todt’s presence, but any student of business management will tell you that it takes time for changes to be made and fr the effects of those changes to be felt. Todt’s influence is only really beginning to come into effect now. The demise of FOMA has been for the benefit of the sport.

I don’t think they’d have gone out and said it, they just answer a question and it gets out as if they spoke about it on their own accord.

I remember when the press asked Vettel if he’d have tried to overtake Webber again if he got the chance, he said yes and ‘The Sun’ (who else) reported it with the headline “Vettel ready to crash teammate in bid for title glory”.