FOTA teams and newcomers lodge 2010 entries

The nine FOTA teams on Friday said their entries to contest the 2010 world championship are “conditional”. Five new teams, and suspended FOTA team Williams, have already met the FIA’s midnight deadline.

Attached to the block entries by Ferrari, Toyota, McLaren, BMW, Renault, Red Bull, Toro Rosso, Brawn and Force India, however, is the stipulation that the sport’s governing body tear up its published 2010 rules and revert to this year’s regulations “amended in accordance with proposals … submitted to the FIA”.

Full FOTA Statement:

FOTA: conditional entry for the 2010 Championship

All FOTA Teams have today submitted conditional entries for the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship.

FOTA confirms all its Members’ long-term commitment to be involved in the FIA Formula One World Championship and has unanimously agreed further and significant actions to substantially reduce the costs of competing in the Championship in the next three years, creating a mechanism that will preserve the technological competition and the sporting challenge and, at the same time, facilitate the entry in the F1 Championship for new Teams. These measures are in line with what has been already decided in 2009 within FOTA, achieving important saving on engines and gearboxes.

All FOTA teams have entered the 2010 championship on the basis that:

1) The Concorde Agreement is signed by all parties before 12th June 2009, after which all FOTA teams will commit to competing in Formula One until 2012. The renewal of the Concorde Agreement will provide security for the future of the sport by binding all parties in a formal relationship that will ensure stability via sound governance.

2) The basis of the 2010 regulations will be the current 2009 regulations, amended in accordance with proposals that FOTA has submitted to the FIA.

All FOTA teams’ entries for the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship have been submitted today on the understanding that (a) all FOTA teams will be permitted to compete during the 2010 Formula One Season on an identical regulatory basis and (b) that they may only be accepted as a whole.

All FOTA teams now look forward with optimism to collaborating proactively and productively with the FIA, with a view to establishing a solid foundation on which the future of a healthy and successful Formula One can be built, providing lasting stability and sound governance.

It has been reported that a compromise agreed in principle is for a 100m euro cap next year, granting special assistances to small entries, before the 45m euro cap arrives in 2011. The FIA is yet to comment. In a media statement, FOTA also vowed to sign a new Concorde agreement by June 12 – the day of the announcement of the 2010 entry list – with the teams committing until 2012 and ensuring “stability via sound governance”.

Meanwhile F1′s potential entry list for 2010 swelled to six names on Friday, even if nine of the current teams are yet to lodge their paperwork by the midnight deadline.

USF1, Campos and former champions Williams had submitted their entries prior to May 29, which is the last day of the FIA’s one-week registration window for next year. By mid afternoon on Friday, three more teams – all new ones – confirmed they have signed up: Lola, Prodrive and British F3 outfit Litespeed, whose bid is supported by the well-known engineer Mike Gascoyne.

Litespeed boss Nino Judge also said he, like Team USF1, has paid the deposit for a supply of Cosworth’s new 2010 customer engine. “We wish all teams the very best whilst the decision process is taking place and look forward to the potential of being on the grid in 2010 and beyond,” he said.

It is expected that the rest of the existing teams, including Ferrari, will make the midnight deadline, but F1′s official website reports that so far “just Williams have declared putting their name forward”.

FOTA, nor any of its member teams, would comment. Part of their reported compromise deal with the FIA is for a gradual arrival at Max Mosley’s preferred 45m euro budget cap, with the cap to be 100m in 2010.

“The level of next year’s cost cap has risen substantially since we originally considered entering,” said Prodrive’s David Richards, expected to rename his entry Aston Martin in 2012. “However everyone appears committed to major reductions in future years and when one takes into account the transition proposals for new teams we are confident that we now have the opportunity to be both commercially viable and competitive,” he added in a media statement.

The 2010 entry list will be published by the FIA on June 12.