Full Throttle

Formula 1 teams and governing body the FIA fail to emerge with a concrete solution to the ongoing budget cap row after a day of talks.

But there seems to be some movement on one of the more important, some would say divisive issues, the two-tier regulation has been cast aside, for now.

Whether it be a sudden realization common sense should rule or someone remembered the time-worn Rule of Unintended Consequences the FIA[sco] and FOTA can move on to the more important issue of the proposed budget cap. (Or “Budgie Cap,” H/T Ollie)

For those that are glutton’s for punishment BBC has a ten minute video interview with Max “The Littlest Perv” Mosley where he confirms two tier system is out and further discussion on the budget cap.

So you wouldn’t have to (thank me now, or thank me later) I watched it - and took a bath immediately thereafter - and can report there’s not much there that hasn’t been written elsewhere.

Formula One teams, the FIA[sco] and Bernie Ecclestone emerged from Friday’s meeting at a Heathrow hotel with nothing in hand and no compromise on the proposed £40 million budget cap.

The five squads threatening to quit the sport - Ferrari, Renault, Toyota, Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso - have gone off to kibitz among themselves and presumably formulate an alternative to the current plan on the table.

“We have pointed out, and it is something the engineers have said, that current F1 consists of endless refinement at enormous expense and we want to move away from that and have invention and creativity, but we can only do that if we restrict the cost - because if we have unrestricted cost nobody would be able to afford it,” Mosley related as he emerged from the meeting.

“I think some of the teams agree with that idea, and some don’t, and they have gone away to discuss it.”

Also unresolved was when, or if a new Concorde Agreement would ever be agreed to and signed. As it’s been over two years and no new Concorde Agreement has come close to being agreed upon that leads me to a quote about Rick’s Café Américain: “I am shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!”