Political shenanigans between FIA and FOTA

Martin Birrane, Executive Chairman of the Lola Group, believes that the FIA was taking advantage of a selection of budding new teams during the ongoing war between the Formula 1 governing body and FOTA earlier in the season. With Lola and numerous other teams having not been selected to take part in the 2010 championship, N.Technology has already gone before French courts to discuss what it describes as 'irregularities' in the FIA voting process which eventually saw Campos, Manor and USF1 selected, with Lotus later taking the place of departing BMW.

"It was something of a mystery to us at first but clearly we were, to some extent, being used as pawns between the FIA and FOTA," explained Lola's Birrane, who had been attracted to F1 by the £30m budget cap, which was later overturned by FOTA, with Lola withdrawing its application just two days before N.Technology followed suit.
"I do not think that technical capabilities were given sufficient consideration in the process. From commercial, accounting and sporting matters, everything seemed very thorough indeed.

"However, messages that we got from the FIA were that everything at Lola was in line with their standards and that of an organization intent on being competitive in Formula 1. It remains to be seen whether the three new teams that were selected then can achieve more than just 'also ran' status."
Lola and N.Technology are not the only organizations to be left questioning the FIA's decisions earlier this year, as Prodrive also pondered its failure to be selected by the Paris-based federation, then being headed by Max Mosley.

"The conflict was very disturbing to us and certainly one potential investor was completely put off by it," Birrane revealed. "We decided to withdraw our application because we did not wish to be used in this political dispute. There was so much infighting and uncertainty at that stage and all we wanted to do was go racing." GPUpdate.net