When it comes to sport, Johnny American is a pretty rum cove. The overwhelming philosophy of the country is free enterprise, but not in sport. A Major League baseball team is a Major League baseball team no matter if it loses every game it plays, It is so because it holds a franchise to be a Major League baseball team.

We now have a franchise system in Formula One and, behind the scenes, the sport is tearing itself apart with Ferrari signed to Bernie Ecclestone and other teams either coming out for the GPWC or threatening to. At the heart of the dispute is the franchise system, which means money.

There was a time when you could buy a second hand F1 car, find a driver with money, and enter the car in the odd race. If the car and driver were good enough, they got on the grid because they had set a time, not because they were part of a franchise. In 1977, a guy called Frank Williams, bought a secondhand March (he thought he was buying a new one, but Max Mosley was the salesman) and entered it in the odd race while his mate, Patrick Head, set about designing the Williams FW06. In 1978 Nelson Piquet did one race in an Ensign, three in an old McLaren M23 and was so impressive that he was signed by Brabham which, back then, was owned by Bernie Ecclestone.

Remember the Rondel F1 car? It didn't do much, but what happened to the 'Ron' of Rondel?

From the point of view of the owner of an F1 team, the franchise system makes sense. The logic goes, if we restrict the number of teams, then every place on the grid has a financial value and we keep out the embarrassing teams like Andrea Moda.

Andrea Sassetti, who owned Andrea Moda, was merely incompetent, other team owners were forced to spend much time in small rooms. Akira Akagi, owner of Leyton House (formerly March), was one, he was guilty of a bond swindle involving US$ 2 billion. Dr. Jean Pierre van Rossem, owner of Onyx Grand Prix, was another who was housed and fed at public expense. In its late, woeful, stages, Brabham had two owners, Joachim Luhti and Ted Ball, who were both banged up.

One co owner of the Larrousse team, Didier Calmas, murdered his wife, she got stroppy after finding him in bed with one of the team's drivers and she wrecked his suits. He was replaced by 'Rainier Walldorf' who, under his real name, Klaus Waltz, was wanted by the police in several countries for, among other things, four murders. He died in a siege involving the German police. He had been arrested by the French police, but a hand grenade had won that argument.

Then there was Gonzalez Luna, who set up a team called GLAS, and raised US$20 million in sponsorship, he even had Lamborghini on board. In the summer of 1990, Luna vanished with all the money and is still being sought by the Mexican police. Lamborghini tried to make the best from a pretty raw deal which is why there was a Lamborghini F1 on the grid in 1991, occasionally. Lamborghini's record reads six starts and 26 failures to make the grid.

There was the time when a senior member of a top team was bundled into a van, taken to a quiet place and introduced to the joys of baseball, from the point of view of the ball. He had borrowed money from a 'financier' (later gaoled) so he could take control of an F1 team. The story was reported in The Daily Mail, with names given, but no complaint was made to the police.