Ferrari Claim FOTA Victory Over the FIA

Although Max Mosley yesterday insisted that nobody lost in the FIA – FOTA war and that Formula One was the only beneficiary of the long-lasting dispute between the two bodies, a press release on Ferrari's official site claimed the teams' alliance was the victorious side. As argued by the Ferrari statement, all the requirements of the FOTA have been agreed upon and are to be implemented in F1 starting next year.

Reducing the costs inside the sport to the level of the early 1990s, as confirmed by the FIA in yesterday's press release, is not looked upon as a defeat for the teams' organization, as Ferrari argued the set of cost-reduction rules proposed by the FOTA were aiming at the same result.

“Today the FIA World Council accepted the proposals formulated by FOTA for the 2010 Formula 1 World Championship. A Championship, which will be held, as suggested by FOTA, in the spirit of sporting and technological competition, with clear and fixed rules and transparent governance, handled by the F1 Commission,” said the Ferrari statement.

“The objective is to avoid continual changes decided on by one person alone and to gradually reduce costs, to get back to levels of spending similar to those of the early Nineties within the next two years. The FOTA teams constantly promoted these objectives in the interests of motorsport and all its protagonists, first and foremost the fans,” added the document.

In addition to imposing their desired rules for the upcoming season, the teams also managed to get rid of FIA president Max Mosley. While the 69-year old Englishman will continue to be the head of the ruling body until the upcoming elections in October, his F1 duties will be handed immediately to Michel Boeri.

A FOTA commission will now start working on a new set of rules for the 2010 season, to replace the much-discussed and now-scrapped budget cap regulations.