F1 boss issues breakaway threat

F1 boss issues breakaway threat

By Andrew Benson

Could the F1 teams split from the FIA to set up their own championship?

Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone has warned that unease over the position of Max Mosley could lead to the teams forming a breakaway championship.

Ecclestone had previously played down the threat after Mosley won a vote of confidence as president of governing body the FIA over a sex scandal.

The 77-year-old told the Times: "The teams can do what they like.

"To keep sponsors happy, we are trying to say we can't break away. But it could well be that it will happen."

Ecclestone pointed out that the failure of F1's power-brokers to renew the Concorde Agreement, the document which governed the sport from 1981 to 2007, means the teams are free agents.

"What the FIA doesn't have, which is the most important thing for them, is an agreement with the teams they would have with the Concorde Agreement," he added.

"There is no agreement between the teams and the FIA. There is a commercial agreement that has been signed by the teams and Formula One Management, so the teams can do what they like."

Ecclestone has been discussing a revised Concorde Agreement with the teams, but Mosley has, according to sources, made it clear he does not want to renew it.

The Jewish community say the FIA shouldn't let somebody like Max represent them Bernie Ecclestone

That effectively means any checks on his power as FIA president, which were enshrined in the Concorde Agreement, no longer exist.

He has already disbanded the F1 Commission, the body which until last year agreed the F1 rules before they were rubber-stamped by the FIA World Council.

And teams are anxious about the fact that the current situation deprives them of power and influence.

Mosley has been under pressure since March, when the News of the World accused him of taking part in a "Nazi-style orgy" with prostitutes.

Mosley, the son of former British fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley, accepts he visited the prostitutes but denies there were Nazi overtones.

The 68-year-old has launched a legal action against the newspaper alleging defamation and invasion of privacy. The case starts on 7 July.

Ecclestone and Mosley appear to be at loggerheads over F1

Mosley won a vote of confidence of the FIA members on 3 June.

Ecclestone said in the Times interview that the scandal was damaging Jewish investment in F1.

"The thing that worries me is that the Jewish community controls an awful lot of the finance which comes into Formula One, directly or indirectly," said Ecclestone, who is Jewish.

"They say the FIA shouldn't let somebody like Max represent them."

Ecclestone's remarks are in contradiction to a letter he sent to FIA member clubs last week apparently playing down the threat of a breakaway.

They indicate a significant escalation in the dispute between the two most powerful men in the sport, which in theory could threaten the future of F1.

Ecclestone and Mosley have been close associates for more than 30 years.

During that time, there have been previous suggestions that they were at loggerheads, and these have always turned out to be false.

But sources say that this time there does seem to be a genuine dispute between the two men over the state of F1.

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"I am responsible to our investors who have an awful lot of money invested," Ecclestone said.

"And I am responsible to all the teams and manufacturers, who have an awful lot of money invested. Max is responsible to the people in wherever who have no money invested, and nor has the FIA got money invested.

"All they've got is the money that comes from Formula One. If there was no Formula One, the FIA would be in serious trouble."

The FIA was unavailable for comment, but Mosley wrote a letter to the FIA member clubs last month setting out his position on the Concorde negotiatons.

He said that the FIA had two main concerns - to ensure a fair financial package for the teams and the championship, and to guarantee the independence of the FIA as a regulatory body.

He wrote: "A new Concorde Agreement would give the F1 teams a greater say in the rule-making process, including various rights of veto.

"Because of its influence over the teams (which comes mainly from its ability to offer favours in and around the paddock), [Ecclestone] sees a Concorde Agreement as another way to exercise control over the sport.

"I do not believe we should concede. The sport and the commercial interests should be kept separate. The teams and the CRH [commercial rights holder, which is Ecclestone and the venture capital company CVC] should be consulted and listened to at all stages, but it must be the FIA, not the CRH or the teams, which decides the regulations.

"My refusal to concede on this has led to a difficult situation."