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Last week Bernie Ecclestone was calling Ferrari and Formula One “a marriage made in heaven, one of those super things that work well”.  This was after Max Mosley’s suggestion that if Ferrari didn’t like his new rules they could sod off.

We know that Ferrari are Bernie’s favourite team but considering his recent divorce from former model wife, Slavica (possibly costing him £1 billion), I’m not sure he’s someone I’d want to be taking marriage advice from.

Tomorrow, Ferrari go before the French courts to seek an injunction preventing the introduction of the new rules.  They are relying on a secret deal made in 2005 between Ferrari and the FIA that gives the Scuderia veto power over any new regulations.  A deal that Max Mosley doesn’t seem to think is valid anymore.

Legal action.  Shady deals.  Threatened boycotts.  What ever happened to racing?

Luckily we have Bernie to lighten the mood.  Speaking to The Times, when asked about the court action, Ecclestone said:

It’s good, it keeps it in the bloody newspaper.  They should have done it before – idiots.

Christies is auctioning some fantastic vintage posters in London on Wednesday including a number of old motor racing and Formula One posters.

They date from the 1920’s to the the 1970’s and include Le Mans, Silverstone, Monza and, of course, Monaco.

Most of the Monaco posters pre-date the modern Formula One World Championship.  The poster to the right is from 1936, the year Monaco became part of the European Championship, and seems to depict a Mercedes-Benz W25K rounding La Rascasse.  There is also a poster from the 1966 race, the year McLaren made their Formula One debut.

The earliest poster is one by Noel Alphonse for the 1927 French Grand Prix held at the Autodrome de Montlhéry outside of Paris.

Originally called the Autodrome parisien, this track had extremely high bankings and in 1925 Alberto Ascari’s father, Antonio was killed there while leading the French Grand Prix in an Alfa Romeo P2.

(Via Dinosaurs and Robots)

FIA President Max Mosley met with representatives of the teams in London on Friday in an effort to resolve the deepening crisis over budget caps and a “two-tier” rules system.

The FIA want to introduce an optional budget cap of £40m in exchange for increased technical freedoms but the teams are worried the new rules will create a two-tier Championship where cost capped cars could be up to two seconds per lap faster than uncapped cars.

So far five teams (Toyota, Red Bull, Toro Rosso, Ferrari) have said they won’t race next year under the new regulations.

Despite six hours of “friendly” discussions, the meeting broke up when Mosley received a text message informing him that Ferrari had started legal proceedings in France to prevent the introduction of the new rules.  Emerging from the meeting Mosley said:

During the meeting it became apparent that Ferrari has made an application to the French courts, and I don’t know the details, but it is to apply for an injunction to stop us doing what we want to do

Apparently, the injunction is based on a 2005 agreement made between Ferrari, the FIA and FOM which, in return for extending the Concorde Agreement until 2012, gave Ferrari the power of veto over any new technical regulations (as well as some extra cash.)  Ferrari lawyer Emmanuel Gaillard explains:

We have to register between May 22nd and 29th and that means accepting the new rules, but these rules do not conform with the commitments taken in regards to Ferrari.

The trouble with all these agreements is that they are shrouded in secrecy so no-one really knows the details.  Hopefully more information will be made public when the case is heard on Tuesday but I still wonder if the basis of the Ferrari legal challenge is Appendix 5 of the Sporting Regulations which seems to suggest rules may only originate from the Sporting and Technical Working Groups.

Image: Ferrari

Back in March, Oliver White at BlogF1 posted an interesting comparison of pre-season testing times from 2008 versus those of 2009.

In those numbers was a hint of the dominance to come from Brawn GP and the relatively poor performance of McLaren’s MP4-24.  But they were also a bit misleading in that the second best improved team was BMW followed by Ferrari, neither of which have impressed much this year.  Red Bull, currently second in the Constructors’ Championship, did only marginally better in the comparison table.

Last weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix marked the start of the European F1 season which is traditionally the time when teams introduce upgrades to their cars.  In fact, in previous years, many teams would only release their new car when they got to Europe, choosing to run the previous season’s car for the opening flyaway races.

So with most of the teams bringing updated cars to Spain there was a lot of talk of improvements in lap times.  BMW’s upgrade was the most radical, attaching a new rear wing, front wing and a completely redesigned nose.  BMW team boss, Mario Theissen, said they were hoping for a half second per lap improvement.

But are the cars significantly faster now than they were at the beginning of the year?  As the teams all tested at the Circuit de Catalunya in the winter we can compare their times set in testing with their times set during the Spanish Grand Prix weekend.

Below is a table comparing the fastest time set by each team at the Barcelona test in February to their fastest time set during the Spanish Grand Prix weekend.

To be honest, I’m a bit confused by the results.  It shows that all the teams except McLaren posted slower lap times at the Spanish Grand Prix than they did in testing.  In fact Brawn GP were the second biggest losers in the comparison despite dominating the race last weekend.

Perhaps this kind of comparison is not really valid but if BMW claim their car is now half a second a lap faster shouldn’t they have been able to at least match the time they set in testing?

If anyone has any ideas about how to interpret these results, I’d love to hear it in the comments.

Image: BMW AG

Renault have become the fifth Formula One team to announce that they won’t be competing in the 2010 World Championship unless the two-tier regulations are rewritten.

Toyota was the first team to declare they would not compete under the regulations announced at the WMSC meeting on 29 April.  They were followed by similar announcements from Red Bull, Toro Rosso and Ferrari.

This means half the 2009 grid are now saying they won’t race next year unless the regulations are revised.  I don’t expect Brawn GP, Williams or Force India will join the boycott, and McLaren will probably want to keep a low profile, but I wouldn’t be surprised if BMW were to announce that they will not race under the new rules either.

Like Ferrari, Renault have said it is not the cost cutting they are against, rather it is the fact that there will be two sets of rules.  Also like Ferrari, Renault have taken the opportunity to criticise the governance of the sport and again I have to agree.  Surely Formula One would benefit if as they say “the sport is coordinated with a spirit of consultation with all parties (FIA, FOM, FOTA)?”

The Renault statement in full:

The decision of the Federation International de l’Automobile (FIA) to introduce two sets of Formula One technical regulations for the 2010 Formula One season has caused the Renault Group to reconsider its entry in next year’s FIA Formula One World Championship.There is frustration that FOTA’s constructive proposals, including major cost saving measures to be adopted progressively between 2009 and 2012, which were carefully constructed by FOTA members, have been completely ignored without any form of consultation by the FIA with the teams.

It should be stressed that FOTA has set the same, if not lower, financial objective as the FIA, but Renault strongly believes that this must be introduced through a different procedure agreed by all parties.

Renault also believes that it is paramount that the governance of the sport is coordinated with a spirit of consultation with all parties (FIA, FOM, FOTA) in order to achieve a better balance between the costs and the revenues. Renault is also of the firm view that all entrants in the World Championship must adhere to and operate under the same regulations.

President of the ING Renault F1 Team, Bernard Rey, commented: “Renault has always considered Formula One as the pinnacle of motor sport and the perfect stage to demonstrate technical excellence. We remain committed to the sport, however we cannot be involved in a championship operating with different sets of rules, and if such rules are put into effect, we will be forced to pull out at the end of this season.”

ING Renault F1 Team Managing Director, Flavio Briatore, commented: “Our aim is to reduce costs while maintaining the high standards that make Formula One one of the most prestigious brands on the market. We want to achieve this in a coordinated manner with the regulatory and commercial bodies, and we refuse to accept unilateral governance handed out by the FIA. If the decisions announced by the World Council on the 29th of April 2009 are not revised, we have no choice but to withdraw from the FIA Formula One World Championship at the end of 2009.”

Max Mosley is due to meet with FOTA on Friday.  It should be an interesting meeting.

Image: Renault