Jun.21 (GMM) In an odd twist to F1's political crisis, Ross Brawn on Sunday indicated that FOTA may demand that the FIA acts as the regulatory body for the breakaway championship.
Although the eight rebel teams are weary of Max Mosley and want to split with the Paris federation, Brawn said FOTA may ironically call upon the FIA to stand over the non rule-making elements of their own series."I think the agreement with the European Commission is that the FIA has to offer to do that (for) any competitive series that wants to set up," said the Brawn GP chief."If you want, the FIA can run the series for you. They can provide the stewards, the scrutineers and things of that nature. So, that is available if FOTA wants to take it up," he added.It was rumoured earlier this weekend that Brawn, the only fully independent racing team affiliated with FOTA, was concerned about the breakaway's ability to match F1's commercial rights holder in terms of the income support offered to teams.CEO Adam Parr, whose Williams outfit recently broke ranks and sided with the FIA, said wryly at Silverstone that he was "impressed" with Brawn's confidence about going it alone with FOTA."There's no way that we could walk away from our contracts and raise the sort of money that we would need to compete with the manufacturers, the Red Bulls and so forth," he said.Brawn agrees: "FOTA will have to support the small teams. They know it can't just exist on the manufacturers, so there has to be a structure that supports the small teams."Brawn said more meetings will take place next week to begin work on the unnamed breakaway championship's technical regulations.
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