Friday, June 19, 2009

El Supremo

Bernie: it's called retirement. Try it, you bizarre little gnome:
Motorsport governing body, The Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), plan to sue Ferrari and the seven other Formula One teams threatening to set up a breakaway championship next season, for breach of contract.

Following meetings between FIA president Max Mosley and F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone at Silverstone on Friday, the FIA has now decided legal action is their only course of action.

Confirming their intentions, a statement read: "The FIA's lawyers have now examined the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) threat to begin a breakaway series.

"The actions of FOTA as a whole, and Ferrari in particular, amount to serious violations of law including wilful interference with contractual relations, direct breaches of Ferrari's legal obligations and a grave violation of competition law.

"The FIA will be issuing legal proceedings without delay. Preparations for the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship continue but publication of the final entry list will be put on hold while the FIA asserts its legal rights."

Meanwhile, Formula One's sole commercial rights holder and overall supremo, Bernie Ecclestone, has dismissed the threat of the eight FOTA teams breaking away to form a new championship.

... [snip] ...

Currently only five teams have committed to racing in next season's championship: Williams and Force India, who were expelled from FOTA for agreeing to participate, and new teams Campos GP, Manor F1 and Team US F1.
Good luck with that, "Supremo." Williams was good a couple of decades ago. Otherwise ... yeah, sure, sounds like something I'd be frothingly anxious to pay to see. Sure.

2 comments:

Craig said...

I had a brainstorm on this...

Ferrari leaves F1 and fronts teams in the IRL and NASCAR. Hear me out.

Fiat cancels the Dodge NASCAR program and replaces their cars with Fiat chassis and Ferrari engines. History is made as Ferrari competes for the first time in the Daytona 500, stock car racing's biggest event.

As for IRL, no permanent team is established. Ferrari puts a team together for the Indy 500, Juan Montoya drives (I'm sure Ganassi could be talked into it). 2 maybe 3 races at the most after that, maybe Watkins Glen, Richmond, and another road race, drivers vary.

I've got a lot of good ideas

Jim Wetzel said...

Perfect! Do you suppose the Italians have a phrase that translates to "rubbin' is racin'?"

Probably not. They're too smart to say that.