13/02/2006
NEWS STORY
FIA President Max Mosley has warned the 'rebel' manufacturers behind the Grand Prix Manufacturers' Association (GPMA) to sign up to the 'new' Concorde Agreement now or risk being excluded from the World Championship.
Talking to reporters ahead of the 2006 season, the Englishman warned the manufacturers and the manufacturer-backed teams that if they fail to sign up to Bernie Ecclestone's new agreement they face total exclusion.
"From 2008, nobody has either a right or an obligation to enter the championship," he told reporters today.
"We are going to stick to 12 teams because of safety and all the pits now are arranged for 12," he added.
"There are six in there," he continued, "there are three, possibly four, people talking about entering and there are five GPMA teams. It makes sense to open entries soon and then to close them again quickly. Then we can discuss with the people that have entered refinements to the regulations before the deadline of the end of June.
"The regulations for entry are identical to the present day," he added, "except that we have deleted the $48million bond. We would look at their factory, their business and be satisfied that they are capable of doing what we wanted.
"It would not surprise me to see some defections next month when we open the entries. I hope everybody will be sensible and see these are sensible rules and everyone will enter.
"I have got a real determination to see this through. I honestly believe that if F1 is to prosper then we have got to get the costs down so that the independent teams can survive. There will be provision in the rules saying we could accept a late entry but you can only do that if there is a vacancy."
Just over a week ago, at a time when the rift between the 'rebel' manufacturers and teams appeared to be healing, Mosley said that, in his opinion, manufacturers, and manufacturers-backed teams, should not be entitled to a share of the revenue generated by the sport.
Mosley revealed that plans to reduce costs to attract smaller, independent teams to F1 will be discussed at a meeting of the World Motor Sport Council on March 22, in Paris.
Entry to the 2008 championship will open the following day and will remain open for the next 10 days in order to allow time for discussions before the deadline for regulations at the end of June.