Dear Max (Letter from the Rebel-5, GPMA)

Letter from the GPMA to Max Mosley
Dear Max

Thank you for your letter of 15 March 2006, enclosing a copy of the 2008 Sporting Regulations which are to be approved by the World Motor Sport Council on 22 March 2006.

We are pleased to note that the FIA wishes to involved teams in constructive discussion with a view to adopting changes to such Regulations with further aims as set out in your letter, once entries into the 2008 Championship have been accepted.

However, prior to any such discussions, we feel that it is appropriate for us to identify as number of significant concerns which we would prefer to raise now before the said Regulations are approved by the World Motor Sport Council.

Organisation Agreement

The 1998 Concorde Agreement, to which the teams and the FIA are parties, guarantee the current participating teams, during each year of the term, a right to entry into the Championship. Furthermore, the 1998 Concorde Agreement provides for the teams, as stakeholders in the sport, to have a significant role in its governance. These provisions appear to have been removed from the latest proposals submitted by the FIA post 2007 and we would ask that provisions to accommodate these concerns be taken into account in the draft 2008 Sporting Regulations to be approved by the World Motor Sport Council.

Engine Homologation

Whilst all signatories to this letter (and Cosworth) agree and confirm that they are committed to reducing engine costs, we realise that there is no time to discuss this issue further with you before the meeting of the World Motor Sport Council; we would respectfully request that Regulation 86e and Appendix 6 be agreed before the Sporting Regulations are adopted.

Rule Changes

We have noted that the provisions for changes in the Sporting and Technical Regulations which are currently set out in Appendix 5 of the draft 2008 Sporting Regulations, are different from those proposed in your letter of 18th November 2005. We would wish to see the composition, voting structure and proves of the Formula One Commission and its related working groups being established in line with your 19th November 2005 proposal. In particular, we believe that, further to previous discussions, if the majority of teams vote in favour of a change, such a change should not be capable of being vetoed by the F1 Commission.

In addition to the above, we do have a number of other concerns which we would also wish to discuss with you, which include the restriction on testing (Article 63 (b)), the engine ballast penalty (Article 86 (a)) and the gear box rules (Article 87). We believe that changes could be made to these provisions which would better achieve the FIA’s three objectives set out in your 15th March 2006 letter.

We very much hope that you will accept this letter in the constructive spirit in which it is offered and take our above concerns into consideration before the draft 2008 Sporting Regulations are submitted to the World Motor Sport Council for approval. Further, we would be very happy to discuss them with you in a constructive manner at a mutually convenient time and place.

Kind Regards

Yours sincerely

BMW, Honda, McLaren, Renault, Toyota and GPMA.

Please read the Sequel:)