17/06/2009
NEWS STORY
Max Mosley has today sent the following in response to FOTA's letter of 16 June (see here):
Thank you for your letter of 16 June
Using your numbering
1. Governance
As explained during the meeting of 11 June, if we start to modify the governance provisions of the 1988 Concorde Agreement, a lengthy discussion will begin. There is no time left for this because we must answer the remaining applicants for 2010 no later then Friday.
There are elements in your proposals which we may be able to agree to, but we need time to look at them. For example, your ICA proposals would involve changes to the FIA statutes.
Our proposal is therefore that all parties agree to accept the 1998 governance provisions by means of an exchange of letters. We can then negotiate a new 2009 Concorde Agreement under the protection of the 1998 arrangements. After all, we lived with these for ten years, a few more weeks or months should not cause any difficulty.
2. Resources
No useful discussion was possible at the meeting of financial experts on 15 June because the FOTA representatives stated they were under instruction not to discuss the FIA's 2010 rules.
As the FIA financial rules are those worked out with the teams last year (see here), it is very difficult for us to understand the repeated refusal of FOTA even to discuss them.
We have already offered to accept the report of a reputable auditor backed up by the signature of a main company board member where applicable. Any suspicions of brech would be investigated by a mutually acceptable auditor of suitable standing and any sanctions would be financial under a pre-agreed formula.
A fundamental problem with the FOTA proposal was the absence of a clear figure. The teams need to know what the constraints are, so do we.
We therefore propose that you accept the 2010 rules, as published, which we agreed with you last year. If necessary, these can be revised within the above governance procedures in due course.
3. Two Tier Regulations
As agreed on 15 May, there will be one set of regulations. These will incorporate the changes agreed on 11 June. As explained (and we thought agreed) at the 11 June meeting, the Cosworth has to be allowed to run without limitation in 2010 (i.e. the 2006 duty cycle for a 2006 engine), because Cosworth have neither the time nor the resources to retune for 2010. Any engineer will confirm that this will not give the teams any competitive advantage whatsoever.
4 Legal Documents/Next Steps
We will shortly send a letter for signature to each team. If signed and returned, the letter will make the above proposals legally binding and the relevant team's entry unconditional.
Max Mosley