Five major manufacturers in Formula One met on Wednesday and said they were going ahead with plans for a breakaway series beginning in 2008.
BMW, DaimlerChrysler, Renault, Toyota and Honda -- composing a group known as the Grand Prix Manufacturers Association (GPMA) -- met with seven of the 10 Formula teams: BAR, McLaren, Minardi, Renault, Sauber, Toyota and Williams.
Ferrari, Jordan and Red Bull have already signed up to stay with F1 commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone beyond the 2007 season and did not attend the meeting near Munich, Germany.
The meeting could be a setback for FIA president Max Mosley and Ecclestone, who are trying to retain their 25-year control of the lucrative series. The manufacturers and teams have threatened to leave unless the sport is reformed.
The FIA is the world governing body of motor racing and exerts strong influence over F1. Ecclestone and Mosley are longtime friends, and Mosley is Ecclestone's former lawyer.
"Whilst the group remains open and willing to discuss with the current commercial rights holder and the FIA on the future of Grand Prix motor racing beyond 2007, the current uncertainty leaves them with no option other than to progress preparatory work for the new series," the GPMA said in a statement.
"Although the team principals and manufacturers agree that some progress was made in the recent meetings, they considered it was not sufficient to delay the preparations for the new series," the GPMA said.
Mosley and Ecclestone are reported to have offered some concessions to keep the breakaway teams in the fold.
However, the five manufacturers and their representative teams said they signed a "binding agreement to race together only in a series which satisfies the fundamental principles of a clear and equitable world championship."
The GPMA and teams have called for more financial transparency, and want the power of the FIA limited to interpret rules.
The breakaway group wants appeals taken to the independent, Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport, rather than the FIA's own court. It also asked that special veto rules -- granted only to Ferrari -- be rescinded.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier