FORUMula1.com - F1 Forum

[Stealthgate007]

http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/n ... 3402.shtml

I would like to see this inacted at the end of the season.

Former Canadian Grand Prix promoter Normand Legault believes Formula One teams should abandon the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone.

The 53-year-old told the French language La Presse newspaper that FOTA, the teams' new unified alliance, is their ticket to shedding the sport's current outdated structure.

Legault revealed that, shortly before the Formula One Teams Association was enacted, he made a presentation to the teams in Montreal.

"I said to them 'why don't you reorganise yourselves like a North American sports league? When the (Montreal) Canadiens play the Boston Bruins, they don't ask the International Hockey Federation to referee the match.”

"In the world of North American pro sports, each league has a board of governors, a commissioner and vice Presidents who manage the business. The owners of the sport manage themselves.”

"The National Hockey League doesn't have to ask anyone if it wants to increase the size of the net by six inches," he exclaimed.

Legault said the winds of change are already blowing, and a recent example of this is the recent flexing of muscles between the teams, the FIA and commercial rights holder Ecclestone over the scoring system.



He also says F1 could live without Ecclestone, and the time is ripe for this to happen, given the absence of a Concorde agreement.

"The teams could leave tomorrow morning. They could call it the Grand Prix World Championship. If you have Ferrari, BMW, Williams, if you have Lewis Hamilton, that seems pretty much like the real thing."

Legault said the problem with Ecclestone and FOM is the 50-50 revenue split.

"To go back to the model of the NHL, if the league administrative costs are $50 million, and overall revenues are $1.8 billion, then that amounts to three percent.”

"In F1, the guy who manages the business costs you 50 percent of your revenues," said Legault.

[Frosty]

Haven't some of the dimwitted team principles already signed the new Concorde agreement if they have then surely they can't get away from Bernie right?

[bud]

he talks sense. I could imagine Bernie and the FIA blocking alot of tracks from being used by a breakaway series. possibly created alot more street races.

[Stealthgate007]

Maybe we can Kill Bernie? Or is he already dead, and just being propped up like "Weekend at Bernie's"?

[Frosty]

he talks sense. I could imagine Bernie and the FIA blocking alot of tracks from being used by a breakaway series. possibly created alot more street races.

Surely Bernie could only block tracks he owns right? I'm not sure how much power the FIA have over circuits.

[bud]

Maybe we can Kill Bernie? Or is he already dead, and just being propped up like "Weekend at Bernie's"?

you mean like this

berniewwek.jpg

[texasmr2]

[Denthúl]

he talks sense. I could imagine Bernie and the FIA blocking alot of tracks from being used by a breakaway series. possibly created alot more street races.

Ultimately, Bernie and the FIA would have little power to do so. The F1 teams could bring more money and television revenues than Bernie could.

[Jensonb]

Frankly, it's hard to see what Bernie could do about it. With no teams, and therefore no show, the Tracks could quite easily rescind the contract for couse, since Bernie would be in breach of ti by not having the amount of cars they agreed on - that's assuming he gets any, which I doubt.

[Frosty]

Frankly, it's hard to see what Bernie could do about it. With no teams, and therefore no show, the Tracks could quite easily rescind the contract for couse, since Bernie would be in breach of ti by not having the amount of cars they agreed on - that's assuming he gets any, which I doubt.

But haven't some of the teams already signed the new concorde agreement?

[Jensonb]

Frankly, it's hard to see what Bernie could do about it. With no teams, and therefore no show, the Tracks could quite easily rescind the contract for couse, since Bernie would be in breach of ti by not having the amount of cars they agreed on - that's assuming he gets any, which I doubt.

But haven't some of the teams already signed the new concorde agreement?

There are ways out of that.

[Stealthgate007]

Maybe we can Kill Bernie? Or is he already dead, and just being propped up like "Weekend at Bernie's"?

you mean like this

berniewwek.jpg

SWEET

[cap-dude]

I just read this before coming online, and gee gawd that guy talks some sense.

The FIA and Bernie are a bunch of money grubbing twats. The FOTA clearly make decisions that every fan agrees with and that are clearly better for the sport. The FIA and Bernie make decisions that are better for the environment and their wallets.

True, I'm sure Bernie could stop some circuits from hosting races somewhere in his contracts. But ultimately if all the teams leave, Bernie's not bringing a race to these venues and thus the contract is broken. Then I'm sure the circuits would be very quick to draw up new contracts with the FOTA. They'll not want to go a year without an F1 race. Plus we could see better tracks on the calendar. I'm sure they'd look into racing at America, and Montreal a classic circuit would hopefully make a return. We wouldn't see crap like twilight races.

Not only that, if there was a break-away series. The FOTA could hire ex-drivers like Jackie Stewart to replace the race stewarts.



But really, its not going to happen for one key reason. Safety. The FIA carries out all of the safety tests and makes sure that the drivers are safe. Without their measures theres a pretty good chances Kubicas crash would've been fatal. The FOTA can't just all of sudden start running these tests and go racing the next day. The reality is, if such a break-away series was to take place some-one would actually need to be put in place to manage the commercial and safety aspects. Someone needs to managing the TV feeds and commerical rights. So that could actually take a few years to set-up. Which would mean no racing for a few years, so really its but a distant dream.

A breakway series from the FIA might be further possible but theres another problem. Bernie would have to come, and Ferrari are tied to the FIA. Not a great combination.

[Jensonb]

I just read this before coming online, and gee gawd that guy talks some sense.

The FIA and Bernie are a bunch of money grubbing twats. The FOTA clearly make decisions that every fan agrees with and that are clearly better for the sport. The FIA and Bernie make decisions that are better for the environment and their wallets.

True, I'm sure Bernie could stop some circuits from hosting races somewhere in his contracts. But ultimately if all the teams leave, Bernie's not bringing a race to these venues and thus the contract is broken. Then I'm sure the circuits would be very quick to draw up new contracts with the FOTA. They'll not want to go a year without an F1 race. Plus we could see better tracks on the calendar. I'm sure they'd look into racing at America, and Montreal a classic circuit would hopefully make a return. We wouldn't see crap like twilight races.

Not only that, if there was a break-away series. The FOTA could hire ex-drivers like Jackie Stewart to replace the race stewarts.



But really, its not going to happen for one key reason. Safety. The FIA carries out all of the safety tests and makes sure that the drivers are safe. Without their measures theres a pretty good chances Kubicas crash would've been fatal. The FOTA can't just all of sudden start running these tests and go racing the next day. The reality is, if such a break-away series was to take place some-one would actually need to be put in place to manage the commercial and safety aspects. Someone needs to managing the TV feeds and commerical rights. So that could actually take a few years to set-up. Which would mean no racing for a few years, so really its but a distant dream.

A breakway series from the FIA might be further possible but theres another problem. Bernie would have to come, and Ferrari are tied to the FIA. Not a great combination.

The US managed to have a breakaway fairly easily, it can be done

[darwin dali]

BE would simply rebatch one of the lower series as F1 and hold races on 'his' contracted tracks. MM would jump on that opportunity as those cars run on a shoestring budget compared to F1, thus, a win-win for him.