At the latest meeting of the World Motor Sport Council in Paris (WMSC), the FIA revealed its intention to resurrect the Formula Two name as a low-cost series for young drivers making their way up the motorsport ladder although few details were revealed on exactly how the governing body intended to keep costs down to the level it is targeting.
“The FIA will invite tenders for a new feeder series for Formula One,” an FIA statement read. “This championship, called Formula Two, would be launched in 2009 and used as an inexpensive platform to develop emerging driver talent for Formula One.
“It is hoped this can be achieved within a budget of around €200,000 a car per season.”
Such a figure would appear unworkable as a GP2 boss has confirmed it costs 190,000 euros (£150,000) to run their cars, without the considerable expense of engines.
The FIA has also made no comment on where F2 events would be run or where it would fit into the current motorsport ladder, although there has been nothing to suggest that it would be brought in as a replacement for GP2, despite increasing budgets in the series currently viewed as the closest thing to a Formula 1 feeder series.
F2 was last seen in 1984 before it was upgraded to F3000, prior to becoming GP2 in 2005, and is primarily viewed as a stepping stone to Formula One.
However, GP2 is a commercial series co-run by Renault boss Flavio Briatore and Bruno Michel, rather than under the auspices of the FIA.
This proposal along with others brought forward at the WMSC meeting may be part of the ongoing power struggle for control of the sport between commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone and embattled FIA[sco] president Max “The Littlest Perv” Mosley.
In addition, the provisional 2009 Formula One calendar listed below, does as expected feature France as reported earlier today.
2009 schedule
29 March, Australia
5 April, Malaysia
19 April, Bahrain
10 May, Spain
24 May, Monaco
7 June, Canada
21 June, Great Britain
28 June, France
12 July, Germany
26 July, Hungary
9 August, Turkey
23 August, Europe (Valencia)
6 September, Italy
13 September, Belgium
27 September, Singapore
11 October, Japan
18 October, China
1 November, Brazil
15 November, Abu Dhabi.
Technorati Tags: Formula One, FIA, Auto racing, Flavio Briatore, Bernie Ecclestone, FIA World Motor Sport Council, Motorsport, Full Throttle, F1 Rage!
Tags: Auto Racing, Bernie Ecclestone, F1 Rage, FIA, FIA World Motor Sport Council, Flavio Briatore, Formula One, Full Throttle, Motorsport
peterg wrote,
Apart from the fact that those costs seem unworkable,I can’t see how this is being interpreted as throwing a fly in Bernie’s ointment.
There are enough series running to F3000 regs already, GP2, WSbR(3.5), Euro F3000, A1GP & “the football club” enigma………so how does one more threaten Bernie.
BTW, the previous FIA F3000, 1996-2004, proved that it needs a commercial manager - like Briatore/Michel GP2 - & that the FIA were hopeless in running a series.For Gods sake! They never even had a series sponsor or even a engine/badging deal for F3000, or a real prize money pool.Hence, many teams defecting over to the much better run Spanish series (Dallara by Nissan, Renault, World Series) in the early 2000’s.
The FIA is going to have a hard sell to the teams, imagine telling ART,Super Nova, Dams, iSport,Coloni, FMS, Arden etc to drop GP2 & GP2Asia to run in a another series away from the F1 umbrella.There is a waiting list of teams in Renault 3.5 Pons, Epsilon, KTR, all wanting a GP2 billet…….can’t see them rushing to FIA F2.
Nope, I don’t get it, & I can’t see how this proposal is a shot over Bernie’s bows.
Link | June 26th, 2008 at 9:50 am
F1W wrote,
well, FIA calls its new Formula 2 series the “feeder series for F1″ - that is already challenging GP2. GP2 is owned by CVC, CVC are also the commercial rights owner for F1 and Bernie represents them …
coming out with this sudden F2 revival idea at this time, and with a budget that can’t even buy a car really does not look like anything else than cheap shot at Bernie … Bernie has been warning Max with talks about possible GP1 (meaning F1 breakaway from FIA), so Max came up with his F2 idea …
Link | June 26th, 2008 at 10:17 am
F1Wolf wrote,
ha, what happened to my name ? Part of Wolf has disapeared
Link | June 26th, 2008 at 10:18 am