Breakaway series is go!

[F1boat]

Well they've only gone and done it. Whether it turns out to be a negotiating gambit or not this is bad bad news for F1 (and motorsport in general).

My main concern is this could signal the death of top flight motorsport. Full stop. As many people on the forum have reminded me F1 is a business. Therefore the business of motorsport needs its customers - its fans to survive. The casual fans will have little or no clue what is going on and will most likely tune in to F1 in Melbourne 2010 as normal, perhaps to find no Ferrari etc. Do we really believe these drifting fans are going to bother finding GP1 on whatever channel it happens to be on (maybe PPV). Motorsport as a whole will then loose fans and boom both series fold.

Worse case? Maybe. But it could happen.

Even the worse case is better than an artificially equalized to the Ferrari Campos team.

[Bezza]

Enjoy the rest of 2009, because it will be the last season before this breakaway which is no-win situation for everyone. The manufacturers are greedy, the FIA are greedy, and nobody has the guts to compromise and do what is right for the fans. A breakaway series harms everyone.

I'll enjoy the rest of 2009 and then move onto something different in 2010, I'm sad to say it but I'm not going to watch either series next year if there is a breakaway.

[SteveMcQueen]

Guys, it is not going to happen, wake up already. This is just part of the negotiation, that's all.

It is close to impossible to pull off a series with that sort of professionalism in mind in barely 10 months time, just forget it.

[Ghostwalker]

where Viktory? Viasat Motor?

[Bezza]

we are ignoring the possibility that this will all get cleared up over the weekend and we'll be having the one series with the familiar names next season. this could be enough to get max to stick to his word and not run for re-election, or maybe if he does someone will run against him and get rid of the old fool

Ideal scenario, but chances of this happening???! All concerned have too much pride to compromise, the ego's are too big they only care about themselves and therefore the damage is done.

[Mark]

Guys, it is not going to happen, wake up already. This is just part of the negotiation, that's all.

It is close to impossible to pull off a series with that sort of professionalism in mind in barely 10 months time, just forget it.

Lets hope you are right!

[F1boat]

Mark, I prefer split to what Max is proposing.

[Ghostwalker]

Guys, it is not going to happen, wake up already. This is just part of the negotiation, that's all.

It is close to impossible to pull off a series with that sort of professionalism in mind in barely 10 months time, just forget it.

well we don't know if they have already started with the planning and if that is the case, for how long they have worked with the set up of a break away series.

[Viktory]

where Viktory? Viasat Motor?

Yeah, or to be more correct, my brother told me, and he'd just been watching it, so he must've heard it on there

[ArrowsFA1]

BBC pit-lane reporter Holly Samos:

"Max Mosley has just walked in to the paddock and gone straight into Bernie Ecclestone's bus. I think he'll be a while."

Red Bull boss Christian Horner:

"Bernie Ecclestone is in a tricky position. He doesn't like the rules but it’s effectively his business. He’s in a situation where his key assets are saying they can’t enter. If anybody can deliver a solution to all this, I think he’s about the only man who can. But it isn’t forthcoming at the moment."