Big names facing axe from Formula One grid next year

FIA president Max Mosley will today announce a Formula One line-up for 2010 that could send shockwaves through the sport.

Mosley met with a handful of representatives from the Formula One Teams’ Association in London yesterday, in an 11th-hour attempt to resolve the budget-cap row that has dominated F1 in recent weeks.

Despite further lengthy negotiations between Mosley, Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali, Toyota Motorsport boss and FOTA vice-chairman John Howett, Red Bull Racing chief Christian Horner and Ross Brawn, it is understood that fundamental differences remain to be resolved.

If that is the case then the names on the grid for next year are likely to be very different to those currently competing.

In a bid to potentially soften criticism of his decision, a letter from Mosley to Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo was leaked yesterday.

The timing of it cannot be ignored as it paints Mosley in a particularly good light, as someone willing to fall back on his previously hardline stance over the voluntary cap.

In the letter, dated May 26, Mosley is adamant a cap must be in place for next year, but he suggests it “could be as high as €100 million”.

The figure would then fall to €45 million in 2011, at least offering the teams a year’s breathing space instead of demanding such a cap be in place for 2010, as initially stated.

Of greater significance is Mosley agreeing to all teams racing “under the same 2010 rules...with the technical and sporting advantages originally offered to the cost-cap teams deleted”.

Such a proposal would have ensured no two-tier F1, with Mosley suggesting a transfer of “know-how between current teams and new entrants, at least for 2010, and possibly for 2011”.

It is known that due to contractual obligations, Williams and Force India lodged unconditional entries and will definitely be two of the potential 13 teams to be confirmed for 2010 around lunchtime today.

The suggestion is Ferrari will also be included due to a deal with the FIA in 2005 that legally binds them to F1 until 2012.

There is also an unconfirmed claim that Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso will be included due to contractual conditions of their own.

If so, that would leave McLaren, Toyota, BMW Sauber, Renault and Brawn GP out of F1, opening up the possibility of eight new teams being on the grid.

At least 10 teams are known to have lodged entries prior to the May 29 deadline – Prodrive, Lola, Team US F1, Campos Meta1, March, Team Superfund, Lotus-Litespeed GP, N.Technology, Formtech-Brabham and Epsilon Euskadi.