When the remaining nine members of FOTA signed up for the 2010 season, I really did think that that peace had broken out in Formula One. Silly me. There was a catch, there always is a catch, but I was taken in.

The catch is that FOTA wants to lay down conditions, which is much the same as saying that it wants to over-ride the FIA and determine some of the rules. A rule is a condition and vice versa. It is a condition, for example, that to compete in Formula One, you must use a 2.4-litre V8 engine restricted to 18,000 rpm.

We are witnessing a struggle for power, as we did 30 years in the FISA/FOCA 'War' and much of the impetus is money. Regular readers will know my mantra: Always Follow The Money.

The FISA/FOCA War came down to who was in charge of F1 and how the money should be shared. The FOCA teams, under the umbrella of Bernie and Max felt that as the teams put on the show, they should get the lion's share of the loot. The FIA believed that some of the money coming into the sport, largely through television (which meant that teams could charge sponsors more) would be spread throughout the sport.

In an informal way, Silverstone did just that. It was not the only circuit to do so, but it serves as an example. The Grand Prix made a healthy profit and that subsidised the other meetings including those held on a Saturday when the drivers for any race outnumbered the spectators. Because Silverstone is owned by the BRDC, a non-profit making organisation, the money went back into the sport.

There were empty seats at Monaco, and that is unheard of. There have been empty seats everywhere. Time was when the organisers of the Japanese GP had to hold a lottery to see who got tickets. Prices for seats have gone through the roof, but then organisers have been held in a cleft stick, the cost of staging a race has increased by ten per-cent each year and that is way above the rate of inflation in most countries.

CVC, which owns the rights to F1, has to pay two million pounds a week to pay the interest on the loan it raised to buy those rights. Circuits have to pay more and they have to pass that on to you and I, the mugs in the grandstand. Anyone who buys a ticket is helping CVC which hopes, in the long term, to make a substantial profit and more than a billion pounds has been mentioned.

Organisers, without who no race could take place, do not have their own representative body. Some people have been askance at the idea of a two-tier system among teams, but there are two tiers of organisers. We have the regular, long-established, organiser, and we have those who are subsidised by governments as a show case for their country. Turkey, for example, wishes to join the EU, which is reluctant to accept it, and its race is part that agenda.

Formula One teams could organise their own show. For 1979, a group of leading American teams formed CART in conjunction with the Sports Car Club of America. There was still a USAC National Championship in 1979, with a bunch of no-hopers plus AJ Foyt, but then USAC bowed to the inevitable and so North American open-wheel racing was stable for many years, until the Indy Racing League was formed.

As part of its sabre rattling, Ferrari got hoity toity and sneered at some of the outfits which have expressed a desire to enter F1 next year. The fact is that the World Championship will still be the World Championship with or without Ferrari.