Today, the deafening silence that has followed allegations of tawdry exploits involving  FIA President Max Mosley was broken by four auto manufacturers determined to distance themselves from the scandal.  BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Honda and Toyota all issued statements that make it clear that Mosley has a struggle ahead to keep his Presidency.

BMW and Mercedes-Benz issued the following joint statement this morning:

“The content of the publications is disgraceful. As a company, we strongly distance ourselves from it. This incident concerns Max Mosley both personally and as President of the FIA, the global umbrella organisation for motoring clubs. Its consequences therefore extend far beyond the motor sport industry. We await a response from the relevant FIA bodies.”

Honda issued a similar release later in the day:

“It is necessary that senior figures in sport and business maintain the highest standards of conduct in order to fulfil their duties with integrity and respect. The Honda Racing F1 Team is extremely disappointed by recent events surrounding Mr Mosley and we are concerned that the reputation of Formula One and all its participants is being damaged. We request that the FIA gives this matter careful consideration and reaches an immediate decision in the best interests of F1 and Motorsport.” 

And Toyota echoed all these sentiments with the following statement:

“Toyota Motorsport does not approve of any behaviour which could be seen to damage Formula 1’s image, in particular any behaviour which could be understood to be racist or anti-Semitic. Senior figures within any sport or business, including motorsport, must adhere to high standards of behaviour. When all the facts are known, it will be for the FIA to decide whether Mr Mosley has met the moral obligations which come with the position of FIA President.”

If all this were not enough, the Crown Prince of Bahrain, Sheikh Salman Bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, has requested that Mr. Mosley not attend this weekend’s Grand Prix in Bahrain.

With the silence now broken, voices in the sport (respected and otherwise) are speaking out, calling for Mosley’s resignation.  Against the growing momentum of disconent, there is not a voice of support for Mosley to be heard.

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It’s several hours after the Australian Grand Prix has ended and I’m still pretty sure that I saw a motor race! I saw some scrappy racing, some cars getting sideways in the corners and some huge crashes so probably yes, it was a motor race! Other than the crashes - some of which should definitely have been avoided by the so-called, “best drivers in the world,” I really liked what I saw. I’m also pretty damn glad that the season has started, I couldn’t have waited much longer.

Looking back over the results and thinking back on my overall impression of the first race of the year, here are some things I think we can all be thankful for from the Australian Grand Prix.

1. Ferrari didn’t dominate like winter testing suggested. Despite all the evidence that Ferrari were going to run away from everyone early in the season, they fell apart - very vintage, pre-Shumacher Ferrari. Both drivers were particularly ragged in the race and the single point Kimi picked up was definitely not deserved. They need to regroup for next week.

2. The FIA got the traction control ban spot on. I hate saying the FIA got something right, but the standardized ECU with no traction control and no engine braking is doing the job of separating the good from the great. There are a half-dozen drivers who probably hate the new ultra-touchy cars and think it’s unsafe but then, there are 1000 hungry drivers out there who want a chance to be a grand prix driver so get over it and start driving like you belong in Formula 1!

3. Sportsmanship. It was nice to see Lewis Hamilton being genuinely happy for Nico Rosberg after the race. Nico was clearly excited to be on the podium (his first trip there) and it’s fitting that after the checkered flag drops, the drivers can celebrate the accomplishments of one another. A great post-race feed from Australia let fans see a different side of F1. After the politics and machinations of 2007, it was refreshing.

4 . Honda, Red Bull, Toyota and Torro Rosso are all faster than expected. I really expected all of these teams to be quite a ways back from the chasing pack of BMW, Williams, Red Bull and Renault and yet, there they were, mixing it up in qualifying. If the first corner melee had been avoided, there might have been far fewer points to take home for Renault, Ferrari and Williams. It bodes well for those fans who like to see drivers scrapping for every point.

5. Three drivers, three different teams on the podium. It was a bit fortunate that McLaren didn’t walk to a 1-2 finish but it’s a sign of a competitive grid when three teams can stand on the podium. Sadly, Ferrari and McLaren will occupy the top placings on most days but with a bit more Melbourne style chaos at the start of the races, fans might see some unfamiliar faces holding up the trophies.

Let’s hope Malaysia gives us more of this brave, new Formula 1.

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It’s a sad fact that there are five teams in this category but all of these teams are facing the possibility of single digit points tallies at the end of the season and frankly, that makes them pretenders. Amazingly, only one team can claim they don’t have the cash to develop a winning car and that’s Super Aguri. It’s a miracle they even made it to Australia but that’s a story for another time.

So, without further fanfare and because first practice is only a few hours away, here are my thoughts and predictions on the 2008 pretenders of F1.

Toyota - How a team can spend half a billion dollars (500,000,000.00 - would you look at those zeros!) year after year and accomplish nothing staggers the mind. Toyota might have deserved to be in the previous group I reviewed but frankly, there’s no reason to think that some of their recent testing times were anything other than publicity grabs. Until this team unshackles itself from the corporate boardroom in Japan it will continue to under perform. Not signing either Ross Brawn as Team Principle or Fernando Alonso - even for a season - was yet another missed opportunity. Verdict: Mega money to spend but just more mediocre results to show for it.

Honda - Apparently the hole that Honda fell into last year was deeper than anyone thought. Again, a racing team cannot be run from the boardroom in Japan. Honda installed a completely unqualified technical director in 2006 and sent a top designer packing. It made no sense but the results were devastating - from contenders to joke in one season. Hopefully with Brawn at the helm and an on-form Button behind the wheel they can turn the corner mid-season. The struggle back to the front is going to be a character builder for everyone in the team. Verdict: More upheaval expected within the design team and few trips to the final qualifying session until near the end of the year.

Scuderia Torro Rosso - The Red Bull juniors are still a driver development team running second hand cars. Bravo for giving Sebastian Bourdais a much overdue F1 drive. Whether either driver will have a breakout year is open to debate though most of the paddock seem to think that the other Sebastian - Vettel, is the real deal. The team have adequate funding but the development of the car will come only after it’s been proven with the Red Bull Racing Squad. Verdict: With the quality of teams ahead of them, I expect them in the barriers more often than the points.

Force India - This team chews up and spits out millionaire owners like a bad monster movie. Jordan - Midland - Spyker and now Force India - the name changing never stops! The team have had some moments in testing but I can remember when Prost looked like title contenders in winter testing only to go broke before the year was over. The driver pairing looks interesting if a bit optimistic. Giancarlo Fisichella has a reputation for doing big things when expectations are low and after his last three seasons with Renault expectations are definitely low. Adrian Sutil still seems a little wild but if he can get the better of Fisi then he’ll be on to bigger and better things. Verdict: No better results this year than what you would have expected from Midland or Spyker in the past.

Super Aguri - What high hopes everyone had for the little team of super friends. Now, bought out by a conglomerate of investors, one has to wonder if Super Aguri will be the next Jordan-Midland-Spyker-Force India. It’s quite obvious that it is not possible to enter F1 without serious corporate backing. Aguri have done almost zero development work on their 2008 car - in fact, it’s safe to say that all their efforts were put into surviving, not finding another tenth of a second. Whether the name or the team remain for long is open to debate and that’s a pity. Verdict: The year will be summed up in one word for the team and its fans - ‘disappointment.’

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Reports out of Germany and re-posted on TSN in Canada indicate that three partnering investors have come forward with a financial package to save the Super Aguri team.  The question is, who are they?

The report in Auto Motor und Sport suggests the buyers are a British based company, a group of Middle Eastern investors and another group of German investors.  Could Dave Richards be behind the deal as well?  It’s well known that Richards desperately wants to have his own F1 team and while his dream of a ProDrive F1 team seems to be over, taking over the financially strapped Super Aguri team would work too.

Richards recently arranged for a Middle Eastern investment group to take over British marquee, Aston Martin.  Dave had a strong relationship with Aston Martin for several years having prepared DB9’s for Le Mans (through his company ProDrive).  Since the purchase, Richards enjoys a position on the board of Aston Martin.

Could Richards have convinced the new owners of Aston Martin to buy into F1 as well?

Parallel to the ProDrive/Aston Martin partnership,  Richards has also managed the Benetton and Honda F1 teams.  He knows the current landscape of F1 and is credited with turning the Honda program around. Interestingly, Super Aguri has a contract with Honda for engines so the previous relationship might be quite helpful in the short term.

In the long term, if the investor is Aston Martin, would they consider building their own F1 engine and entering the team under its own name?

It’s a discussion probably best held over a beer in the pub but in the funny old world of F1, the same people seem to keep popping up in the strangest places.

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One of the great paradoxes of Formula 1 is that because of the introduction of so-called cost cutting measures designed to keep teams from ‘buying success’ through massive spending on research, the rules are in actuality creating an environment where only the richest teams can compete.

In its infancy, F1 was ruled by ‘Grandee’ teams like Alfa Romeo and Maserati who were also car manufacturers. These grandees were initially the only ones who had the resources to build race cars but within a decade they were facing strong competition from small, specialty companies who would build a few race cars and compete for prize money. Enzo Ferrari scornfully called these teams, ‘Garagistas.’

From the early sixties until the turn of the century, ‘Garagistas’ like Cooper, Lotus, Tyrrell, and McLaren (before the Mercedes partnership) were the kings of F1, staying one step ahead of the Grandees by adapting new technology into their cars. Because the technology was cheap and available, nearly anyone could participate and be successful. So successful that Ferrari, the longest competing ‘Grandee’ of them all, failed to win a World Championship for 21 years before the pendulum started to swing back.

The reemergence of the grandees like Honda, Renault, BMW, Toyota Mercedes (via McLaren) and Ferrari at the top of the sport has coincided directly with the introduction of the cost cutting rules that dictate the type of engine, transmission, tires and electronics that can be used in F1.

This standardization has created the perfect environment for the grandees to compete in. Because there are so few areas where teams can introduce new innovations (something the Garagistas excelled at) the manufacturers have found an advantage in exploiting small performance gains found only by exhaustively refining their static designs. This process can cost millions of dollars per tenth of a second of performance – millions the independents don’t have.

For those fans that admire the drive and passion of the independent teams of F1, these are dark days in the shadow of the Grandees. The last best hope for survival of the Garagistas doesn’t lie in cost-cutting but in throwing out the design rules altogether.

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