Politics confuse new F1 entrants

Manor Motorsport team owner John Booth has admitted that the current manner in which the future of Formula One is being presented is confusing to the new entrants. Due to kick off its first F1 campaign in 2010, the team has admitted that the current wrangling between teams and the FIA is a 'difficult' situation.

Joining the grid along with USF1 and Campos next year, Lewis Hamilton's junior formulae team of 2002-2004 will be making the jump to F1 for the first time. With governing body the FIA and FOTA (Formula One Teams Association) still unsettled, though, a final compromise and knowledge of the regulations would be a sight for sore eyes at Manor.

"Every time you think you've got it sorted out it all changes again – it's like walking on quicksand," Booth, boss of the Sheffield-based squad, said to Autosport. "We'll see what the Concorde agreement is, if they ever sign it, then we'll comment."

Having already explained to GPUpdate.net that the €45m budget cap initiative was a attraction to F1, Booth admits that the termination of the scheme (with a new target in place of reducing costs to 1990s levels) complicates the team's project: "It makes it more difficult of course, but I think we can just about manage it; it just depends what the target is in two years time, what 1990's levels were. Honestly, it's almost impossible to comment.

"It's great that all the cars are going to race in one championship (as opposed to a two-tier system), but I can't really comment on the agreement until I know what it is – it was very broad wasn't it?" Would Booth have submitted an F1 entry with the knowledge that teams would continue to compete under current regulations? "Probably not," he replied, "but are they sticking to the 2009 rules? No refuelling is quite important – until we see the exact rules, all of us are just guessing."