Max jumps Teams bosses with Standard Engine Tender

[John S]

 
According to this report on Autosport the FIA is pushing ahead, before the Team principals meeting next weekend, with plans for standard engines in F1 by inviting tenders now.

Looks like Max is up to his tricks again.

 
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/71456

Autospot also added this report on a wider thread about Fiday in Shanhai.

 "At the end of free practice two, a press release indicating that the FIA was inviting tenders for the single engine to be used in Formula One from 2010-2012 was circulated.

With the Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA) scheduled to meet with FIA president Max Mosley on Tuesday to discuss a wide variety of rules changes and finalise a course of action, it totally blindsided the teams despite the idea having been floated last week. The world "unilateralism" was heard more than once in the paddock as the night charged (and darkness does come mighty fast in Shanghai) in.

Conventional wisdom had it that the single engine idea - which led to all sorts of veiled threats about manufacturer pull-outs - was a bargaining position. And it may well still be, but actually going to the extreme of inviting tenders is, shall we say, a very strong move indeed. Even if a clarification from the FIA underlined that the manufacturers would still be able to build their own engines and transmissions to someone else's design.

It was a moot point whether this was a good story to liven up a quiet day or not. One the one hand, it had been another uninspiring Friday on the track (another thing which FOTA is looking to address) and this at least created some spark of excitement and intrigue. On the other, with a three-way title fight still to be decided, perhaps it was an unwelcome distraction from the business of racing.

As ever with F1, it was politics that had come to the surface and you can only hope that, come tomorrow, the world's attention is focused on what could be a classic championship denouement over the next couple of weeks."

 

[Steven Roy]

This is Max's stndard negotiating method.  Set out the worst case scenario so that people will negotiate what he really wants.

[johnbull]

One engine in F1 ?  W T F is he talking about. Can somebody please tell him this is Formula One not Formula Ford.

Do his tender requirements specify that the engines have to be red ?

[Alianora La Canta]

Let me get this straight. Max is unfreezing the engines in 2009 and then standardising them in 2010. I don't know what the sporting equivalent of food poisoning is, but I fear F1 is about to catch it.

[cosworth151]

With this head-long charge to turn F1 into a spec racer series, how about a slight name change to reflect the new situation.

F1 (NWF)
 aka NASCAR Without Fenders

[Scott]

That would seriously be the death of the sport for me.  As it is I don't like all the aero and engine regs.  If someone can build a 24k motor - then all the power to them I say.  If someone figures a cigar shaped car will beat the rest - let them try!  The cars already look enough alike (worse to come next year), and the engines are already compromised by rev limits and WAY too many regulations.

Good question JB - is it Formula Ferrari or Formula One???

[Warmwater]

Those guys are seriously trying to get rid of any fans that are left, maybe it is just more political posturing but we don't need any more of this type of BS. Do those two really sit around discussing ways to make it all more pointless and boring?
They sure don't care what the teams or fans think.

[johnbull]

Cesare Fiorio put it most eloquently. He asked why Max and Bernie were going on ad nauseam about reducing expences yet they encouraged the sheiks to keep blowing millions on circuits nobody wqas interested in. He said the main fan and spectator base was Europe and Europe has plenty of suitable circuits. Why not use them.

[cosworth151]

Well said, JB. Take China for an example. Empty grandstand. Many of the stands that were occupied were filled with people bussed in and given free tickets. It was on at the crack of dawn in Europe and 03:00 here in the States. The powers-that-be praise it as a success.

Indy last year was down to "only" 110,000+ paid admissions. that in a year when the race wasn't even on the calender at first. In the past, it's pulled 250,000+. That's what F1 calls a failure.

Go figure.