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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

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

The World Motor Sport Council have been busy in Paris.  Besides dealing with McLaren,  the WMSC have also announced that a budget cap will be introduced in 2010.

FIA president Max Mosley has wanted to introduce a cap for a while and in a meeting held in March the FIA originally set the cap at £30m.  This has been increased to £40m but it still represents  a massive cut of up to 90% for the biggest teams.

The cost cap is optional but those teams who sign up for it will be allowed greater technical freedom, specifically:

1. Movable wings, front and rear.
2. An engine which is not subject to a rev limit.

The teams will also be allowed unlimited out-of-season track testing with no restrictions on the scale and speed of wind tunnel testing.

The following will be excluded from the £40m cost cap:

• Marketing and hospitality
• Remuneration for test or race drivers, including any young driver programmes
• Fines or penalties imposed by the FIA
• Engine costs (for 2010 only)
• Any expenditure which the team can demonstrate has no influence on its performance in the Championship
• Dividends (including any tax thereon) paid from profits relating to participation in the Championship.

It is interesting that engine costs are excluded for 2010.  According to a Q & A document issued by the FIA, this is “in order to attract manufacturer owned teams to take up the cost capping option.”

Does this mean there will effectively be unlimited engine development for 2010 or is it just that teams may turn the revs up on their existing engines?

And what about the regulations regarding the number of engines a team may use in a year?  Will they stay the same?  Will the number of engines still be limited in 2011 when engines are included in the cost cap?

Ferrari have been leading the protest against a budget cap and it will be interesting to hear Luca di Montezemolo’s response.  He will probably be able to raise the cap to £50m or more but it’s clear that costs need to be contained and, as the FIA say, “unfettered technical competition is part of Formula One’s DNA.”  Far better to allow greater freedom of technical innovation within a budget than to go down the road of standardising everything on the car.

The World Motor Sport Council has handed down a suspended sentence on McLaren in a meeting held in Paris on Wednesday.

The team were charged with bringing the sport into disrepute by not being truthful with the stewards in Australia and Malaysia, telling them that Lewis Hamilton had not been instructed to slow down to let Jarno Trulli pass him in the closing stages of the Australian Grand Prix.  In the days that followed, McLaren sacked sporting director Dave Ryan, Lewis gave a full public apology and Ron Dennis stepped back completely from all operations of the F1 team, although he denied his move was linked to the affair.

McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh attended Wednesday’s hearing alone and admitted the team’s guilt in all charges.  Here is the statement issued by the WMSC:

At an extraordinary meeting of the World Motor Sport Council held in Paris on 29 April 2009, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes admitted five charges of breaching article 151c of the International Sporting Code relating to events at the Australian and Malaysian Grands Prix.

The following decision was taken:

“Having regard to the open and honest way in which McLaren Team Principal, Mr Martin Whitmarsh, addressed the WMSC and the change in culture which he made clear has taken place in his organisation, the WMSC decided to suspend the application of the penalty it deems appropriate.

“That penalty is a suspension of the team from three races of the FIA Formula One World Championship. This will only be applied if further facts emerge regarding the case or if, in the next 12 months, there is a further breach by the team of article 151c of the International Sporting Code.”

The full reasons for this decision will be issued shortly.

The penalty is similar to that handed down to Jenson Button’s BAR-Honda team in 2005 after they raced with an underweight car in the San Marino Grand Prix.  In that case, although the team was not proved to have definitely committed fraud, BAR was given a two race ban and a suspended sixth-month expulsion.  The FIA had originally wanted to throw them out of the Championship for the rest of the season.

In giving a similar sentence to McLaren the FIA have shown a remarkable (and uncharacteristic) consistency in their decisions.  Now McLaren and the sport as a whole can move on with what has so far been an exciting start to the season.

It was Whitmarsh’s 51st birthday today.  I suppose this result was the best present he could hope for from the FIA.

Image: McLaren