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An agreement has been reached between Formula 1′s governing body and the teams to prevent a breakaway series, says FIA president Max Mosley. The two parties had been engulfed in a bitter row over planned budgetary and technical changes for the 2010 season.

But it appears a resolution has now been found and, as part of the deal, Mosley has agreed not to stand for re-election as president. For their part, the F1 teams have agreed to bring costs back to the level of the early 1990′s and also to help the 3 new entrants Campos, US F1 and Manor with engines and chassis.

The news follows a breakthrough meeting of the World Motor Sport Council in Paris, and a cost-cutting deal being struck between the FIA and the eight members of FOTA – Ferrari, McLaren, BMW Sauber, Renault, Toyota, Red Bull, Toro Rosso and Brawn GP.

3 March – Buenos Aires, Argentina (last F1 race: 1998)
21 March – Mexico City, Mexico (last F1 race: 1992)
11 April – Jerez, Spain (last F1 race: 1997)
25 April – Portimao, Portugal
2 May – Imola, Italy (last F1 race: 2006)
23 May – Monte Carlo, Monaco
6 June – Montreal, Canada (last F1 race: 2008)
13 June – Indianapolis, United States (last F1 race: 2007)
1 July – Silverstone, United Kingdom
25 July – Magny-Cours, France (last F1 race: 2008)
15 August – Laustizring, Germany
29 August – Helsinki, Finland
12 September – Monza, Italy
26 September – Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
10 October – Marina Bay, Singapore
24 October – Suzuka, Japan
8 November – Adelaide (last F1 race: 1995) or Surfers’ Paradise, Australia

Sky has been made 11/8 favourites to secure the TV rights to FOTA’s proposed breakaway Formula 1 championship.

Ladbrokes have ITV at 9/4, the BBC at 11/4 and Five on the outside at 6/1.

The Formula One Teams Association, comprised of Williams, Sauber, Brawn, Force India, Renault, Red Bull, Ferrari, Toro Rosso, Toyota and McLaren, said last night that they intend to set up a rival championship for 2010 because of a row over the FIA’s proposed budget cap and governance of the sport.

“Sky have demonstrated in the past their willingness to snap up breakaway competitions,” said Ladbrokes spokesperson Nick Weinberg.

Late Thursday night FOTA issued a statement on behalf of its members (BMW-Sauber, Brawn, Ferrari, McLaren-Mercedes, Red Bull Racing, Renault and Toro Rosso and Toyota) that it is starting preparations to form a new series.

The statement follows:

“Since the formation of FOTA last September the teams have worked together and sought to engage the FIA and commercial rights holder, to develop and improve the sport.”

“Unprecedented worldwide financial turmoil has inevitably placed great challenges before the F1 community. FOTA is proud that it has achieved the most substantial measures to reduce costs in the history of our sport.”

“In particular the manufacturer teams have provided assistance to the independent teams, a number of which would probably not be in the sport today without the FOTA initiatives. The FOTA teams have further agreed upon a substantial voluntary cost reduction that provides a sustainable model for the future.”

“Following these efforts all the teams have confirmed to the FIA and the commercial rights holder that they are willing to commit until the end of 2012.”

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At the start of the season I was delighted to see Brawn doing so well. It was great to see a new team enter the fold and doing so well. They had broken the monotony of every qualifying or race being dominated by either Maclaren or Ferrari.

But now its even worse. At least last year tehre were 2 teams who were always at the front, but now there is only 1. Red Bull are snapping at their heels but apart from the blip that was Shanghai, they are still behind.

Can someone else please win a race?

I am in favour of the budget cap, but not in the way it is being introduced. You cannot expect the big teams to slash their budget in the space of 1 year, this should be gradually phased in.

I know there are teams waiting in the wings to join in but should we take in Prodrive, Team USA etc and let Ferrari, Toyota, Renault and Red Bull go? Absolutely not. Phase it in over a number of years, gradually reducing the max budget. This will keep the same regulations and specifications for all teams on the grid.

This two-tiered system is nonsense!

Came across this site during the day: LewisHamiltonSucks.com. Their mission is to make their unofficial site more popular than Lewis Hamilton’s official website. So add a link to their site.
They are currently ranked fourth in Google search for “lewis hamilton” and they will have a long way to go as his official site is ranked first, even ahead of his Wikipedia page, which is unheard of.

McLaren have today been handed a suspended three-race ban as the ’lie-gate’ saga reached its conclusion today. The team’s pro-active approach in the run up to the extraordinary hearing of the World Motor Sport Council in Paris played its part in softening the blow as McLaren could have been more heavily penalised. However, the WMSC appear to have taken into account a number of mitigating circumstances after McLaren pleaded guilty on all five counts of breaching the International Sporting Code.

via BreakingNews.ie

Motorsport’s governing body, the FIA, has ruled the Brawn GP car, which has taken Briton Jenson Button to two wins this season, is legal. A panel heard eight hours of strongly worded evidence on Tuesday after complaints that Brawn, Toyota and Williams, use an illegal diffuser. And the five International Court of Appeal judges said the designs "comply with the applicable regulations".

All three teams are free to race in the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai.

"The decision comes as no great surprise," said BBC Radio 5 Live Formula One commentator David Croft. "Already this season two sets of stewards, an FIA president and an FIA race director have thought that the diffuser design of Brawn, Williams and Toyota was OK.

"It’s a sensible decision for Formula One. The FIA’s court of appeal were highly unlikely, on technical grounds, to go against the decision of the stewards. Seven teams are now playing catch up and have to do something about it very, very quickly."

Brawn GP currently lead the constructors’ world championship with 25 points, with Toyota in second place on 16 points. A Toyota statement issued immediately after the ruling said: "Our team studied the wording of the new 2009 regulations in precise detail to ensure we interpreted them correctly.

"We also made full use of the consultation procedure with the FIA which was a helpful process to ensure our interpretation of the technical regulations was correct.

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Lewis Hamilton and McLaren have been disqualified from the Australian Grand Prix after stewards decided that Hamilton had deliberately misled them when providing evidence about an incident that saw him passed by Jarno Trulli during a safety car period.

The Italian was handed a 25-second penalty following the incident on lap 57 at Melbourne, which relegated him from third to 12th in the final classification and saw Hamilton promoted from fourth to third.

But both drivers were called before the stewards in Sepang today to address new evidence on the incident.

Following the hearing, the stewards decided to reinstate Trulli’s third place and to sanction Hamilton and McLaren by excluding them from the race classification.

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