FOTA are set to respond today to a letter sent by Max Mosley, urging them to enter F1 unconditionally in order to have a say in its rules. The letter, published yesterday, told teams that they would have to abandon their provisional conditional entry if they wanted to have any influence over the regulations for 2010.
“It is of course up to you, but the simplest way to ensure that all entrants run under the same rules would be if everyone entered under the cost-cap rules as published and then all entrants cooperated to agree modifications to those rules which would make the proposition workable for all parties,” said Mosley in the letter which was published on the Autosport website.
Mosley went on to request a response by the end of today in order that business can be concluded before the final 2010 entry list is published on Friday. The teams are thought to be preparing a reply this morning.
Mosley’s letter is provocative in that he is suggesting that the teams back down and agree to enter, so that negotiations can take place. The teams are unlikely to be convinced by this because their opposition was to the rule changes in the first place.
More and more observers are calling for the FIA to make the £40m budget cap higher for 2010, so that the big teams have time to restructure. This could be accompanied by assistance to the new entrants in terms of standardized parts, engines etc, provided by the aforementioned big names. Whether FOTA will suggest this will become clear later today.
