The FIA, has found USF1 guilty of infringing the International Sporting Code by failing to take part in this year’s F1 world championship, for which it registered and was accepted.
Under a new disciplinary procedure introduced at the start of the year, an initiative of new FIA president Jean Todt, USF1 has been fined €309,000, a sum equivalent to the championship entry fee, disqualified from the right to take part in any competition and is liable for the governing body’s costs in executing the disciplinary procedure.
The team, scheduled to be a fourth Cosworth-powered new team, claimed force majeure due to uncertainty over the budget cap initially proposed by the FIA as part of F1’s future structure, and the delay in the signing of the 2009 Concorde Agreement. The team also claimed that commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone’s public scepticism about the chances of the team making the grid had deterred sponsors.
At the FIA hearing, team principal Ken Anderson and supporting lawyers confirmed that USF1 had asked for its entry to be suspended until 2011. It claimed that “the negotiation of the 2009 Concorde Agreement lasted several months longer than expected, affecting USF1’s ability to timely design and build its cars and procure sufficient sponsorship.”
The team also claimed that the new Concorde “lacked the protection for smaller teams that USF1 had counted on, including a ‘cost cap,’ greater technical freedom, higher engine rpm, an adjustable front wing and increased testing opportunities.” The team claimed to have $26m of binding written sponsorship contracts as of late December ’09 and that non-performance of these deals was partially due to negative public comment on the part of FOM.
The FIA, however, said that only one of USF1’s sponsorship agreements, for $8m, was actually binding. They also pointed out that Article 4.1 of the Concorde Agreement explicitly excludes lack of funds as grounds for force majeure, and that USF1 had signed the Concorde Agreement on July 31, which was after the events of which they had complained. It added that finding out three weeks before the season started that USF1 would not be in Bahrain was unacceptable and that not least among its concerns was the deprivation of opportunity for another team to have run in the championship in place of USF1.
