Max blinks

[Speeddog]

http://www.crash.net/Formula+One/News/148514/1/fia_backs_down_with_amendments_to_f1_rules.html

I'm hoping that an agreement can be reached and everybody gets back to bidness. 

[teddy037.2]

 

[swampduc]

Hmm, a "partial" blink. Wonder if it'll be enough.

[Speeddog]

Maybe it was a flinch. 

[superjohn]

The whole situations is stupid. Bernie and Max were on the other side of the fence 30 years ago in the FISA-FOCA wars, and the Indy Car split at the height of their popularity has shown us that a split ends up dividing the fans into three camps. The 10% who will fanatically follow one group, the 10% who'll fanatically follow the other group, and the 80% who'll just watch something else. You'd think millionaires and billionaires would know better.

[MotoCreations]

Personally -- I'm glad FOTA has now told Bernie/Max goodbye. 

Hopefully we now will have racing again at Indy, Canada, Spa, France and all the other great racetracks where fans actually go see them race.  These stupid races in the MidEast/FarEast at crazy hours with nobody at the track and then televised "prime time" into Europe was crazy.  Bernie deserves what he is getting.  Max finally is getting "spanked" properly. (bad pun but it was too easy!)

FOTA will have races above plus Monaco. (Where Ferrari is racing is the series that will be allowed there)

I'm sure the politics will get uglier the next few weeks/months.  But hopefully there is finally some real rule guidelines that make sense!  Racing is racing -- it shouldn't be decided by FIA politics that has ruined the racing the past few years.

Hopefully Williams and the new USF1 team will run in the FOTA series.

[Dannyboy]

So, I guess it's official now.  Bout friggin time.  Max and Bernie were made for each other.  Hopefully, they'll both be gone here in the next year or so and the real F1 teams can go back.  I have to disagree with this, though:

The whole situations is stupid. Bernie and Max were on the other side of the fence 30 years ago in the FISA-FOCA wars, and the Indy Car split at the height of their popularity has shown us that a split ends up dividing the fans into three camps. The 10% who will fanatically follow one group, the 10% who'll fanatically follow the other group, and the 80% who'll just watch something else. You'd think millionaires and billionaires would know better.

Formula 1 is gonna be a glorified GP2 next season and I don't think they'll even keep 10%.  The big name teams with the big name drivers are going with FOTA.  That's what people are going to watch.  The fact that there are lots of tracks that aren't on the F1 calendar makes it even better.  The only thing is Monaco.  They might be able to lengthen the Monaco weekend to include 2 consecutive weekends in order to accommodate FOTA but nobody knows.  And then there is Spa.  My favorite track of all time.  I really want to see them race at Spa but I don't know if it can happen.

[EvilSteve]

I'm so glad that they've done this, I'm really sick of F1 being dumbed down so that more people can join. Yeah, I like to see more than 3 cars on the grid but I don't want to see 50 priuses with giant CF wings on them. A balance needs to be struck between technological innovation and team participation. MM running the place with an iron fist just doesn't cut it. BE requiring many millions of dollars for rights to run a race (add to that the actual cost of running the race) is insane.

I'll be following FOTA and the drivers I care about. If it fails, so be it but I don't really watch Formula NASCAR that much anymore anyway.

We've gone from 2 teams dominating to 2 different teams dominating, what's the make the beast with two backsing difference?

[EvilSteve]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/76316

Stop, it's lawyer time.

[MotoCreations]

Interesting tidbits (I know a few mechanics in F1 -- comments via them last night):

1) Monaco doesn't have a contract with Bernie/FIA/etc for next season.
2) Possibly 3-car teams (maximize sponsorship and full grids) for awhile.  Question is in regard to pitstops then
3) Spa is available
4) Canada (Montreal) isn't signing any deal with Bernie as of yesterday.
5) Tony George (Indy)

We'll see.  As for the FIA and legal?  How do they sue someone for not competing in their series?  Shouldn't they then persued lawsuits against Honda, Super Agura, etc as well.  The EU is going to have fun with this.

[Dannyboy]

I hope that's right.  I'm actually gonna be able to afford a decent vacation next year and I would like to go back to Europe.  Monaco was awesome but the race itself kinda sucks.  I've been doing Canada for the last couple years and would definitely like to go back.  Spa is the shizzy.  That is where I want to go. 

As for tracks having a contract with Bernie, I can't see how they wouldn't still be able to put on another race. 

The thing that blew my mind about the whole lawsuit thing was the quote about, "the split being a grave violation of competition law."  Microsoft can attest to the fact that the EU doesn't like monopolies and that's exactly what it sounds like the FIA is trying to be. 

Like I said before, it's about time this happened.  Max and Bernie have done a lot for F1 but they've undone everything in the last few years.  Maybe if they go, the teams will come back.

[superjohn]

If it comes down to it, I think Bob Varsha was right when he said the FIA could call any of these tracks and say, "If you host a race from this renegade series, you will never again be allowed to run an FIA sanctioned event," which would hurt a lot of tracks.

I did hear about Monaco not having a multi-year contract, so I retract that.

I'm just afraid, that like so many things, the future won't be decided on any merits. The new series, should it go through, may have better cars, better teams, better circuits, and everything but it's still not going to be F1. It will immediately lose all connection to the history of the sport and without the history and tradition I'm not so sure it will have the staying power, or appeal to casual fans.

Don't get e wrong, I don't like what Bernie and Max are doing with the sport. They've been on the other end of this argument before and they should have more sense than to completely ignore the teams. I just think a break-away series is a really bad idea that's going to leave the F1 landscape scarred for decades to come. I'd rather see the manufacturers pull out and run the Le Mans series or something instead.

[derby]

http://www.crash.net/f1/news/148605/1/mosley_replacing_me_would_probably_be_worse.html

[El Matador]

The teams have to wizen up. Just throw some Nazi hookers at the guy and he will accept any terms.

[derby]

The teams have to wizen up. Just throw some Nazi hookers at the guy and he will accept any terms.

yeah, cause that worked so well last time.