Ferrari claims FOTA victory in F1 war

Luca di Montezemolo

(GMM) Ferrari on Wednesday claimed victory in F1's political battle on behalf of the FOTA alliance.

Although Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo was more magnanimous in Paris, while the departing Max Mosley insisted there were no losers, a document distributed shortly afterwards by the Italian team claimed a clear outcome.

Ferrari said the 2010 season will be "a championship … which will held, as required by FOTA, in the spirit of sport and technological competition, with clear and certain rules and a transparent governance".

The Maranello based team, to now call off its threat to break away from the official category with seven other major teams, said the outcome had been achieved because the World Motor Sport Council "accepted the proposals formulated by FOTA".

Mosley's impending departure, and his immediate replacement on F1 matters by Michel Boeri, was also intimated by Ferrari in insisting that FOTA's "objective" was to "avoid continuous (rule) changes decided by one person alone".

Ferrari also denied any back down on the issue of cost reduction, insisting that the unwinding of budgets to early 90s levels was "constantly promoted" by FOTA".

Relief was the F1 community's buzzword on Wednesday, elucidated best by RTL, the German free-to-air broadcaster that was worried about the sport's impending United States-style series split.

"We were always confident that the two sides would agree in the end, because the differences between them were outweighed by the common interest," spokesman Mathias Bolhofer said.