Tuesday May 26, 2009
Williams first team to confirm entry for 2010 season
MONACO: Former champions Williams have become the first current Formula One team to sign up for the 2010 championship despite an ongoing standoff over the regulations that has left Ferrari threatening to quit.
Responding to a tipoff to Reuters from another source, Williams chief executive Adam Parr confirmed the entry yesterday but stressed the team remained committed to the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA).
“The unity of FOTA is of paramount importance to Williams,“ he said.
“Yesterday we joined the other members of FOTA in writing to the FIA (International Automobile Federation) to request a continuing effort to find a compromise concerning the regulations for 2010.”
Parr said Williams and FOTA were also seeking an early signing of a new Concorde Agreement, the confidential accord governing the sport which the teams, FIA and commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone have yet to put their names to.
“We believe that under the leadership of (Ferrari president Luca) di Montezemolo and (Toyota motorsport president) John Howett, FOTA has extracted some very significant concessions from the FIA,” said Parr.
“These include not only the procedural aspects of the budget cap but also other elements that will enable the higher budget teams to participate.
“Having said that, Williams has — and has always maintained — that we have a binding contract with both FOM (Ecclestone’s Formula One Management) and the FIA to participate in the world championship from 2008 to 2012.
“We have been paid in full for our participation and we feel both morally and legally obliged to make it clear that we will participate in Formula One in the future as we have in the past 30 years.”
Champions Ferrari have threatened to quit the sport after an unbroken 60 years of competition if the 2010 rules are not re-written.
So too have former champions Renault, Toyota and the two Red Bull-owned teams, half of the current teams on the grid.
An FIA spokesman said the governing body would publish the 2010 entry list in June. — Reuters
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