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FIA To Issue 40M Euro Penalty for Toyota

Sauber/Qadbak may seem eager to sign driver and sponsors for their upcoming Formula One campaign – as they will most likely be granted an F1 entry by the International Automobile Federation to replace the departed Toyota F1 Team – but they'll have to wait at least until next week to do that.

According to Germany's Auto Motor und Sport, the ruling body is currently investigating the way in which Toyota decided to withdraw from the sport, as the Japanese manufacturer this year signed a new Concorde Agreement.

The aforementioned document was inked by all 3 entities of F1 racing – the FIA, the FOTA (Formula One Teams Assiciation) and the FOM (Formula One Management), commercial rights holder of the Formula One Championship – and clearly states that all teams who have signed it should remain committed to the sport at least until the end of 2012.

Under the circumstances, the FIA is seriously considering legal actions against the Japanese car maker, seeking approximately 20 million Swiss francs per every year they were supposed to be part of F1 (2010, 2011 and 2012). That means a huge $60 million Swiss francs (approximatelly 40 million euro) bill for Toyota, which the Tokyo based company are likely to contest in the future.

Until now, however, no official information about this matter was released by either the FIA or Toyota, so everybody is waiting to see how the story will end. We believe that BMW and Sauber/Qadbak are the most eager to see the matter resolved, as the team's hands are practically tied for the time being.

In addition, Swiss consortium Qadbak revealed that they will pull out of their BMW Sauber buyout deal in case the FIA doesn't grant the Hinwil based team with an F1 entry next year.
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