Brabham’s drive to get back into F1

Alam Khan, Chief UK Correspondent

• Last Updated: June 05. 2009 7:00PM UAE / June 5. 2009 3:00PM GMT

Felipe Massa of Brazil is hoping that there is a positive solution to the current dispute because Formula One will not be the same if his team, Ferrari, and others pull out. Luca Bruno / AP

Another name from motorsport’s past wants to part of the present, yet the future of Formula One remains clouded by uncertainty.

Brabham, who last competed in 1992, have submitted an entry for the 2010 championship, just as Max Mosley, the president of the FIA, again refused to bow down to the demands of the major players in motor racing.

Mosley has warned the dissenting voices of the Formula One Teams’ Association (FOTA), led by Ferrari, that they can set up their own championship if they are not happy with the FIA’s proposed new cost-cutting measures, including a £40million (Dh238m) budget cap.

Nine teams have confirmed their place in next year’s championship and until 2012 on condition that a new Concorde Agreement – the regulatory and commercial document that governed F1 until the end of 2007 – was signed by June 12 and their preferred regulations are put in place.

But Mosley feels there may not be enough time to finalise such an agreement.

“We now have a conflict and we will see who succeeds in the end,” he said, in an interview with a Swiss magazine. “I say to them, ‘If you want to draw up your own rules, then you can organise your own championship. But we have the Formula 1 championship’. We draw up the rules for that.”

Mosley’s words suggest there is still much to do before an agreement can be reached between the two warring parties. The FIA will announce next Friday which teams will take part next year.Brabham – backed by the German Franz Hilmer but taking the moniker of Sir Jack Brabham, who has questioned the legality of using his old team’s name – have made it eight potential new teams, including other names from the past such as Lola and March, who will comply with the FIA terms.

Mohammed ben Sulayem, the FIA vice president for Sport and president of the Automobile and Touring Club of the UAE, is at this weekend’s Turkish Grand Prix as a steward – the first Arab in such a role.

And despite the rumblings following Mosley’s comments, he remains steadfastly behind the FIA president. “He’s not being controversial, he’s being right. Max has been asking them for the past five years to change and they didn’t listen,” said ben Sulayem.

“The sport demands these changes and the teams cannot have their own way, you need someone to regulate. Max is also smart enough to bring everyone together. Do you think Ferrari will go to a second-class championship or another event? We are doing the best for the championship, not because we enjoy these problems. We want stability.”

Like many, Felipe Massa, the Ferrari driver, is desperate for a solution. “If Ferrari is not here, maybe I will have a one year holiday. Or maybe I will drive in another championship, I don’t know. I hope things will be OK, but Formula One without the important teams will be different. It will not be nice for the sport.”

akhan@thenational.ae