The two teams have been ousted by the FOTA earlier this year, during the political scandal between the teams and the International Automobile Federation (FIA) on the 2010 rule book. After breaking ranks with the FOTA and applying for a 2010 entry, Williams and Force India have been kicked out from the alliance.
However, with FIA president Max Mosley and F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone insisting that all teams should agree on the technical and sporting rules for 2010, the members of the FOTA were forced to welcome both teams at the negotiations table a couple of months ago (along with the other 3 newly entries for the 2010 championship).
As far as Sir Frank Williams goes, the 67-year-old Brit made some further decisions in the past few weeks that triggered a negative vibe from the FOTA members. The most important, of course, was not agreeing with a testing session for Michael Schumacher for his presumable return to Formula One.
In addition, Williams insisted that he will stand firm against Ferrari's position to introduce a 3rd car starting next year. From his standpoint, this measure would only increase the gap between the championship “big guns” and the small teams and further endanger the well-going of the sport in the future.
“If you have two or three elite teams with great resources and almost unbeatable cars, they will occupy the first four and a half rows on the grid (if they have 3 cars each). If you're team number five in the pecking order you have no chance of getting near the front of a grid. It's not healthy,” argued Williams.
“Those are the rules and the rules are put together with more force and authority by the manufacturers than by teams like Williams. We've signed up to those rules and we expect all parties who are signed up to honor their signatures,” explained the F1 boss.
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