Briatore Hails FOTA's Win Over the FIA

The latest decisions ratified by FIA's World Motor Sport Council last week did nothing but to create a gap between the international body and the Formula One Teams Association. Just when the two organizations seemed to get along just fine – mostly on the cost-cutting policies – the revised “winner takes all” system and voluntary budget cap put the FIA and the FOTA on opposite sides.

As the latest reports have shown, the F1 teams seemed to have won the first fight, as the medal system is about to be postponed by the FIA until 2010. The FOTA have argued that the new changes were implemented too late and were, therefore, not compliant with the current Sporting Regulations.

Renault's team boss Flavio Briatore hailed FOTA's short victory over the FIA, arguing that only by sticking together, the teams will have a shot at making themselves heard within the series. He also revealed the teams were not informed about the new changes before the WMSC meeting last week.

“What has happened demonstrated that if the teams are together, their voice can count. It's not true that the teams had been informed, and in any case with Ecclestone we talked about medals, but we never talked about the criteria approved by the world council,” said Briatore in an interview for Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport.

Late last week, following reports that the F1 teams will push for the postponement of the title-awarding system until 2010, FIA's president Max Mosley stated that the FOTA was well aware of the revised point system.

“I was led to believe they all agreed. The World Council was under the impression that they had all agreed,” said Mosley in an interview for British newspaper The Daily Telegraph.

F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has already announced that the new system – most wins lead to championship winner, instead of most points – will make the F1 rule book in 2010 for sure.