FIA Has EUR7 Million Budget Hole for 2011

The International Automobile Federation (FIA) will apparently be EUR7 million short for the 2011 season. According to the British Express newspaper, it seems that the ruling body will have ended their deal with the Formula One Management (FOM) at the end of the 2010 season, by which the latter was paying some annual fees to the former.

The termination of that deal, initially signed by the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone's FOM back in 1997, will leave the international body with a budget hole of around 15 percent (which is what EUR7 million represents for the FIA). Since there are no reports to suggest that such a contract will be extended, the ruling body will have to do something to cover that hole for 2011.

That same deal signed in 1997 gave Ecclestone full power over Formula One's commercial rights, in exchange of an annual fee back to the FIA. Nevertheless, since the 79-year old Brit developed F1 into an immense business through the past decade and a half, the FOM now generates almost one billion euros each year, while the FIA's budget is merely EUR48 million.

“I can't give you the detail but it is not the case (that there is a hole in the budget),” said a spokesman for the Paris-based organization, denying the rumors appeared in the British media.

Nevertheless, should those allegations turn out to be true, the FIA might resort to raising the fees for all its motor racing competitions, including Formula One. Drivers' superlicenses, Grand Prix fines and all other such fees might be subject to change in the year to come, in order for the ruling body to cover that budget hole.

In the recent British Grand Prix, the FIA collected EUR12,000 from the paddock as a result of fines: Pedro de la Rosa had to pay some EUR4,200 for speeding, while Scuderia Toro Rosso were subject to a EUR5,000 fine for unsafely releasing Jaime Alguersuari into the pitlane.