The meeting of the teams to discuss future regulations for F1 has resulted in the formation of a Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) to represent their interests. The idea is that FOTA (shades of FOCA) will work with the FIA and FOM to decide how the sport will change to keep up with modern conditions.
Over at BlogF1, Ollie feels that this may be one level of complication too many but I am not so sure. In the past the FIA has been responsible for the regulations, subject only to the terms of the Concorde Agreement, while FOM has handled the financial side. This has led to some pretty bad rules being instituted at times and suspicions of underhand financial deals at others. Now that there is no current Concorde Agreement, the FIA has the only say upon the direction of F1 and those most affected, the teams, are ignored.
So I see the formation of FOTA as a step in the right direction. It remains to be seen, of course, just how much notice the FIA and FOM will take of its suggestions, particularly if it proves impossible to achieve another Concorde Agreement. But it has to be tried or the teams remain out in the cold.
What the decision does illustrate is a new climate of solidarity amongst the teams. The formation of the association was apparently a unanimous decision, an event remarkable enough of itself. Previously, it has proved almost impossible to achieve such agreement, there being always two or three teams that distance themselves from the majority. The very fact that all the teams now feel the need to be united shows that there is general discontent with the way things have been going.
I suspect that this is the result of the way in which Max Mosley has been quite happy to continue without a Concorde Agreement, since he now feels freed from the restrictions it placed upon his regulatory powers. In seeking to improve his image by asking the teams for their opinions, Mosley may well have begun a process that ends with the participants in the sport having a good deal more say than ever before. It certainly looks as though the teams are determined to be heard in the future and FOTA will be their voice from now on.
That is much more than Mosley was expecting, I'm sure. He wanted some sort of list of technical suggestions that he could then pick apart and amend to suit his own ends; he has done this often enough in the past. But with FOTA looking over his shoulder, it will not be so easy for him to push through regulations that fit only with his strange vision of a green F1. Perhaps we will see fewer unworkable and self-defeating rules introduced from now on.
That is my hope, at least. And, beyond that, there is the thought that an association such as FOTA is only as powerful as it is prepared to go. If there is to be a split away from the FIA, the formation of a new and united association could well be fertile ground in which such a seed could grow...