Formula One Teams Association

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The Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) is a group of Formula One teams that was formed at a meeting in Maranello on 29 July 2008.^[1]

The association, directed by the president of Ferrari, Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, consists of the following teams.

Name	Nationality	Base	Status
BMW Sauber	German	Hinwil, Switzerland	Pending
Campos	Spanish	Madrid, Spain	Active[2]
Ferrari	Italian	Maranello, Italy	Active
Force India	Indian	Silverstone, United Kingdom	Active
Lotus	Malaysian	Hingham, United Kingdom	Active
McLaren	British	Woking, United Kingdom	Active
Mercedes	German	Brackley, United Kingdom	Active
Manor	British	Dinnington, United Kingdom	Active
Red Bull	Austrian	Milton Keynes, United Kingdom	Active
Renault	French	Enstone, United Kingdom	Active
Toro Rosso	Italian	Faenza, Italy	Active
Toyota	Japanese	Cologne, Germany	Active
US F1	American	Charlotte, North Carolina, United States	Active[3]
Williams	British	Grove, United Kingdom	Active

This organisation gives the teams a united voice in their ongoing discussions with the FIA and The Formula One Group regarding the future of Formula One. Headed by Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo,^[4] the first task of FOTA will be to negotiate the terms of the new Concorde Agreement, the commercial contract which governs the championship.

The group will also discuss the proposal to the FIA for the Formula One regulations for the 2011 Formula One season. Team principal of the Brawn GP team, Ross Brawn, had offered his services to co-ordinate this activity. If the teams could not provide their proposal by October 2008, the FIA was to have imposed its own rules for the championship.^[5]

Budget Cap Row

In May 2009, the FOTA teams announced their intention not to sign up for the 2010 championship until the FIA agreed to change the proposed regulations. FOTA disagreed with several of the proposals, the most contentious being the introduction of a £40m budget cap. With the 29 May deadline approaching, the Williams and Force India teams broke ranks, lodged their applications for 2010 and were promptly suspended from FOTA.^{[6] [7]} Following lengthy discussions, on the evening of 18 June 2009, FOTA announced a breakaway "Grand Prix World Championship" series from F1. The WilliamsF1 and Force India teams would not participate in the breakaway series because of their contractual obligation with the FIA.^[8] However, on 24 June 2009, FOTA reached agreement with the FIA over the 2010 season rules and will now not form a breakway series.^[9]

However, on 8 July 2009 the eight FOTA teams walked out of a meeting with the FIA to discuss 2010 rules at the Nürburgring.^[10] They accused the FIA of putting the sport in jeopardy.^[11] A FOTA press release clamied that Charlie Whiting informed them that the eight FOTA teams where not entered in the 2010 championship even though all eight active FOTA members were included on the “accepted” entry list as endorsed by the FIA World Motor Sport Council and communicated by a FIA press statement on June 24. FOTA tried to postpone the July 8 meeting, this was rejected on the grounds that no new Concorde Agreement would be permitted before a unanimous approval of the 2010 regulations was achieved.^[12]

However, it is clear to the FOTA teams that the basis of the 2010 technical and sporting regulations was already established in Paris. As endorsed by the WMSC and clearly stated in the FIA press statement of 24 June “the rules for 2010 onwards will be the 2009 regulations as well as further regulations agreed prior to 29 April 2009”. At no point in the Paris discussions was any requirement for unanimous agreement on regulations change expressed.^[13]

As a result of these statements, the FOTA representatives at the subsequent Technical Working Group were not able to exercise their rights and therefore had no option other than to terminate their participation.^[14]

Nevertheless, the involved parties were able to sign a new Concorde Agreement, agree on resource restrictions and new sporting and technical regulations for the 2010 season at a meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council on July 31, 2009. All of the FOTA teams signed the new Concorde Agreement except for BMW Sauber, which had announced its withdrawal from the sport at the end of 2009 two days previously.^[15]

On 9 September 2009 FOTA held a meeting in Monza and re-admitted both Williams and Force India into full membership. It was also indicated that F1's new teams Campos, USF1 and Manor will be invited to join FOTA in due course.^[16]

References

External links

• The FOTA's official website