The meeting between the FIA, Commercial Rights holder and the Team in Formula One has come and gone. There has been little said other than an official statement:
“All the participants in the meeting were encouraged to seek clarification which resulted in a fruitful and helpful debate on how the new structure would operate in 2013 and beyond.
“A further important step has been achieved today to secure the future of the F1 World Championship which should lead to a final settlement to be reached between the FIA, the Commercial Rights Holder and the Teams in the coming weeks.”
Effectively this means they didn’t solve all the issues, make everyone happy and all sign a document like the old days. It also means that a helpful debate occurred which is another term for airing out dirty laundry and red-faced diatribes on why certain participants feel they are getting a raw deal…”helpful” indeed.
We’re only talking about $1.5-2 billion so what’s to get riled up about? The FIA want an new HQ and more money from the series for their programs, the teams want more of a cut so they can survive and they also want a cost-cutting mechanism that is equitable and regulated and the commercial rights holder wants to maximize their investment and retain as much earnings as possible…what an easy discussion this must have been.
