Color me reactionary but I am beginning to think we have yet to see the end of the Max vs. Bernie vs. teams vs. manufacturers vs. fans vs. the world debacle.The teams have been meeting regularly since the supernova that was Max Mosley’s career lit up the F1 night sky both publicly and privately. The mandate from Max to place the rules/regulations on the teams to develop could be the simple answer for these meetings. As earlier stated, Max wanted the teams to come up with the regulations and future changes for F1. If the teams were not able to do so, he would do it for them. Uh…that is what the FIA, as the governing body, is supposed to do. How about working with the teams Max?
I digress. The interesting thing is that Mr. Ecclestone has been the chairman of all of these meetings and present at each one. Is there still some breakaway rumblings going on? Some FOM and Team collusion? somehow I doubt Sir Frank would go for that. But here is what they were talking about in Valencia, or so it is said.
Dr. Mario was asked what the meeting was about:
“the future and financial issues”
Some bosses looked for a chassis freeze for three years while other, most notably Sir Frank and Force India, were opposed. Now before you get that funny grumbling Patrick Head-like sound in your throat. Would you want to freeze the current Williams chassis for three years? Heck no! Franz Tost, of STR fame, said this about the opposition:
“It is absolute madness. In the car industry, there are more and more joint ventures; only in formula one do we all try to reinvent the wheel,”
Flavio seemed keen on a standard KERS system to be shared by the teams but many felt this is just Tire, ECU and KERS system away from being a spec GP2 series. Flavio fired back with this gem:
“This is really the only way to control costs,” said the Italian.
“Everybody forgets what the public wants,” he hits back. “I don’t see many people interested in our gearbox or our suspension or our brakes.
“The world has changed, we are in the entertainment business as well,” Briatore said.
This could be all they were talking about. Mad Max has given them an edict and perhaps Bernie is trying to get them all together so they don’t look like a bunch of bumbling fools. Reminds me of the teacher putting a group together and giving you some match sticks, water, sodium and a plastic bowl then telling you to make cold fission. You stood around for an hour and achieved nothing only to have the teacher come by and make your tupperware brighter thant he sun in less than 10 seconds.
Maybe Max was trying to make a point that the teams can’t all agree on anything unanimously and perhaps he is right. If this is the case, I give Bernie kudos for trying to organize this and get them all on the same sheet of music. Although I would be much more appeased if Bernie would just haul off and slap the dog poo out of Max before kicking him to the curb. This chest-pounding and hair-pulling is becoming almost laughable if it didn’t entail so darn much money.
