Theissen asks the top teams to keep calm!
The director of the BMW team, Mario Theissen, urged the heads of competing teams to calm down and remain positive in the dispute opposing them to the FIA. Indeed, for several weeks, the FIA – Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile – through its director Max Mosley, has been attempting to introduce a rule capping team budgets […]
The director of the BMW team, Mario Theissen, urged the heads of competing teams to calm down and remain positive in the dispute opposing them to the FIA. Indeed, for several weeks, the FIA – Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile – through its director Max Mosley, has been attempting to introduce a rule capping team budgets at 40 million British Pounds starting next year.
The big teams, with budgets three to four times greater, immediately opposed such a rule. Things worsened when the FIA announced that registration requests for the 2010 season would close starting from May 25th – leaving very little time for consideration.
Mario Theissen is currently leading the FOTA in negotiations. A meeting is taking place tomorrow in Monaco and the German remains optimistic, believing that the situation has not yet reached a critical point: « We need to stay positive, be confident, and continue to do our utmost to reach an agreement because it wouldn’t make sense for anyone to deteriorate our sport and our structure. »
« Currently, no agreement has been reached on the various points discussed with the FIA. We will do what we can to find one, but F1 needs to make sense for those who are present, otherwise, it’s pointless. » continues to argue the BMW director.
Even though Mosley claimed to be certain that budget caps were a good solution, Theissen believes a compromise can be reached quickly, as recent meetings have advanced the situation: « There are some signs from both camps showing that we can find common ground. The primary goal is to ensure that F1 progresses and remains at the top. »
Currently, several major manufacturer teams such as Ferrari, Renault, and Toyota are threatening not to register for the upcoming championships if the budget cap is maintained. The FIA is countering by showing that eight teams have expressed motivation to register if the rule were retained. According to Theissen, BMW has not yet chosen its side. « The position of our team on this matter is undefined. We will discuss tomorrow and, depending on the conclusions, we might also boycott 2010. »
