Ferrari launched a new attack on the FIA last night, blaming Max Mosley, its former president, for Toyota’s decision to follow Honda, BMW and Bridgestone in quitting the sport.
The move came as it emerged that Renault is considering its future in Formula One. An emergency board meeting was convened in Paris yesterday to decide whether the French car giant should continue with its team, switch to being just an engine supplier or follow Toyota by leaving.
As Formula One was still coming to terms with Toyota’s decision to leave with immediate effect, Ferrari, the oldest team in the sport, claimed that the move had little to do with tough world economic conditions and a lot to do with the perceived mismanagement of motor racing’s pinnacle series by the Mosley regime.
In a statement on its website the Italian luxury car manufacturer, whose former team principal, Jean Todt, has taken over from Mosley, listed the companies that have quit Formula One and added: “In reality the steady trickle of desertion is more the result of a war against the big car manufacturers by those who managed the sport than the effects of the economical [recession] that affected Formula One over the last years.”
Comparing the vicissitudes of Formula One to Ten Little Indians, the Agatha Christie novel in which the murderer is discovered too late, the statement added: “In Christie’s detective novel, the guilty person is only discovered when everybody else is dead, one after another. Do we want to wait until this happens or should we write Formula One’s book with a different closing chapter?”
The attack on the FIA and the implication that more companies are set to follow Toyota’s example, something that was given credence almost immediately by Renault’s inquiry into its future, was dismissed by Todt’s advisers.
It was being pointed out that Toyota’s withdrawal had, in fact, been predicted by Mosley and that it was because of his fears for the future of the sport that he had tried, but failed, to win acceptance from the teams for a voluntary budget cap.
Toyota’s decision, which had been rumoured to be on the cards for nearly a year, was announced at the company’s headquarters in Tokyo and marks the end of participation in Formula One by Japanese car manufacturers, tyremakers and big corporate sponsors. The company said that its decision reflected the “current severe economic realities”.
Akio Toyoda, the president of Toyota and scion of the founding Toyoda family, apologised for the poor performance of a team who have spent close to £2 billion in eight seasons but have not won a race.
“This was a difficult but inevitable decision,” he said. “Since last year, with the worsening economic climate, we have been wrestling with the question of whether to press on in Formula One. Now we are exiting Formula One completely. I apologise to Toyota’s many fans for not being able to achieve the results we had intended to achieve.”
Although many suspected something was wrong, the move stunned the 650 staff who work at the Panasonic Toyota Formula One team base in Cologne. John Howett, the president of the team, said he was “devastated” by the withdrawal. He believed the team would not be put up for sale but would be scaled down and reorganised to take part in different areas of what he called “grassroots motor sport”. He thus implied that it will not reappear in the paddock under new ownership, as has been the case with Honda.
The Toyota team recently signed the new Concorde Agreement with the FIA and with Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula One commercial rights-holder, which commits them to the sport until the end of the 2012 season, and they could face legal action for breach of contract after having pulled out without warning. Asked if this was a potential problem, Howett replied: “I don’t know — it depends on Toyota, the FIA and the commercial rights-holder. It’s clear we do have a Concorde Agreement in place. We will have to wait and see what happens.”
Asked if he feared legal action, he said: “At this stage I cannot comment. We will have to wait and see what evolves.”
Toyota’s departure was being seen as an opportunity for the former BMW Sauber team, who do not have a grid slot for next season, to claim the thirteenth place for 2010, provided that their sale to QADBAK Holdings, the Swiss-based company, goes ahead.
Ecclestone would not be drawn on legal action against Toyota and said: “We’re looking into it.”
He added that he was not concerned for the future of Formula One in the light of the Japanese company’s withdrawal. “When you look at the history since Formula One started, I think there have been 73 teams coming and going, so this is what happens,” Ecclestone said.
“The only people that have been with us for ever, since Day 1, are Ferrari. Car companies make decisions based on nothing really to do with Formula One racing.”
(Source: Timesonline.co.uk)
