Zoom The FIA is frustrated by Toyota's departure

The FIA yesterday expressed "concern" about Toyota's decision to quit Formula One and is currently seeking "urgent clarification" of the Japanese carmaker's legal position regarding its previous commitment to the sport.

Several weeks ago, Toyota had signed the amended Concorde Agreement which binds the teams and the commercial rights holders with the FIA until 2012.

Toyota team president John Howett told the Times that he did not know if the FIA would pursue legal action, but F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone commented: "We're looking into it."

Ecclestone told the Daily Express: "The problem is that their team manager John Howett fought against drastic cost-cutting all the way and was against new teams coming in."

The FIA is frustrated that the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) members promised to commit to F1 in exchange for the scrapping of proposed radical budget cap rules, only for Toyota to breach that commitment weeks later.

"The FIA accepted the cost-reduction measures put forward by the teams on the basis that they would ensure a long-term commitment to the championship," the sport's governing body indicated.

FOTA reacted to the Toyota news by acknowledging the "financial pressures" on carmakers at present but also mentioning the recent "period of uncertainty and unnecessary confrontation in F1."

Ferrari went one step further, boldly hitting out at the "war waged against the major car manufacturers by those who managed Formula One over the past few years."

Conventional wisdom, however, points the finger at the global recession allied with Toyota's poor results since 2002, and former team manager Richard Cregan told the Guardian that "the problem lay with certain individuals."

And Ecclestone seemed to agree: "I think the problem lay in the management of the team."

D.B. © CAPSIS International
Source: GMM