Mosley Announces Peace...
2010 Grid Confirmed...
FOTA stops new series...
FOTA reportedly gets what they demanded. FOTA teams must call off the breakaway series and commit to F1 until 2012. The FIA agreed to accept FOTA's demands and there has been agreement to get back to 1990s spending levels. Details of how that will be done are not yet available. It was these details that caused the rhubarb in the first place, so this will be interesting to see. Despite Max's announced plans to run again for FIA/WMSC president in order to "save" F1; it turns out that the saving move might be his agreement to go quietly into the night at the end of this term.
My take:
Mosley gets to announce that he preserved the peace while the team owners rise in power. The new president, who ever that is, will be beholden to FOTA. The current and future team owners have made it clear that they will race high tech cars against other members of this exclusive club, by their rules, no matter what the series is called.
Whether under the banner of FOTA or not, F1's top teams have threatened this before - as they should - they will do this again. FOTA is stronger. 2012 is not too far away to start laying the groundwork for a series laying in wait.
It looks like 2010's grid with 26 cars is a throwback to early 1990s CART: high car count, several manufactures, a mix of chassis and engine combinations. This could be good.
I had hoped that this threatened split would lead to a true merger of the world's open wheel formulae. With the promise of reduced costs with in two years, is there a chance? Hey. I can dream.
