Campos Grand Prix have revealed their investors nearly pulled the plug on the whole team.

They are angry that the budget cap was scrapped, and especially upset that the performance bonuses were pulled along with it.

Though I am not in favour of a two-tier championship I can completely understand their frustration.

Imagine the scene as Daniel Audetto entered The Den

Duncan: "So Daniel tell us a bit about YOU. What's your history?"

Daniel: "Erm, I ran Super Aguri before Honda pulled the investment."

Peter: "Save us the sob story Daniel. How did they do?"

Daniel: "Actually we were faster than the main Honda team most of the time"

Theo: "So if I am going to invest MY children's inheritance in your new team, how is it not going to be a huuuuge risk?"

Daniel: "Well, Max has given us a leg up with the rules. Look, I have a letter here."

The woman who never invests (snatches letter): "Let me see that. OH very good. Yes."

The guy who looks like VJ of Force India: "Well Daniel. You know what? I am going to make you an offer."

I can understand it as well if any of the new teams are upset with the rule changes. Just like Prodrive, they applied under a set of rules specified by the FIA only to have those rules changed after they had been accepted.

The whole episode was handled very badly.

Well, that's the nub of it: Mosley had promised a lot of teams that they could be competitive on the cheap because he was willing to skew the rules. My heart doesn't exactly bleed for Campos now that it's turned out they'll have to play the same game as everyone else. They got what they deserved really.

MM has to take 100% of the blame though. As you say, it was him that was willing to bend the rules, and the teams bid on that basis. I don't want a 2 teir system, but I think the FIA owe the teams something for mis-leading them (although I won't be surprised if there is a get a clause in the tender/contract).

There's nothing barring new teams from entering at 40M, except that they want to be able to to hit above their weight - Minardi never insisted the playing field be changed to make it easier to win. The new teams were willing to be used as pawns in Mosley's chess game, now he's lost they're no longer in a good position. Mosley's expensive empty promises also scuppered Prodrive's entry a couple of years ago. It is 100% Mosley's fault, but somehow it never rebounds on him in the form of a court case...

That's the bit that always surprises me. I would love to know if it's because there are enough clauses to cover him or because the people involved are too scared. It must be difficult because most of them will have dealings in other series.

Fear of being blackballed I guess. I suspect in any other organisation, the disgraceful abuse/mishandling of the tender process alone would be enough for the board to give the president his marching orders, yet Mosley has done this repeatedly with not even a grumble from the FIA. The organisation's rotten to the core (an ideal habitat for a certain Frenchman).

Maybe one day more folks will realize that the FiA is a rather weak organization, even though Mosley made them look though.

But considering that Williams and Spiker held them ransom so Prodrive abandoned their entry. Now it's because of FOTA that 3 teams are getting no favourite rules. (Which IMO is fine)

Not surprising then that there doesn't seem any echo from other teams to replace BMW.

However we should not forget that any of the existing teams could have signed up for a budget cap and have enjoyed the same privileges. Williams and Force India did so.

But had the FiA not changed the rules IMO then we'd had the debates of this season moved to next year and instead of 3 unhappy sponsors we'd had 9 (assuming BMW doesn't get a new team owner), because the original proposal was IMO ridiculous unbalanced. Maybe an attempt to find a middle way, but it polarized way too much.

An important difference however would have been that in all likelihood Mosley would have still be at the head of the FiA next year. Whoever is next FiA president hopefully makes a better job in that regards and makes sure that the FiA is less hold ransom. Mosley had it in his hands however, to be come up with a more sensible approach to begin with. But what to expect from someone who seems to work with a divide and conquer tactic. The lesson to be learned here is that too much divide and conquer can weaken the own organization. And it's obvious for me to see why. The approach works when one tries take over power, but once that has taken place it's not the best wayanymore.

About Campos. I can understand why their sponsor were unhappy. But these are business people. Do they really still believe in "free lunch"? If that's the case, there will be a bumpy ride ahead, that comes to a stop rather sooner than later.

(EDITED)
Hopefully Toadt will have a less aggressive and hands-on approach as FIA President. His background with Ferrari and his son's driver management business will always lay him open to accusations of partiality. We have to open it won't be as bad as many of us fear.

Of course Max's (wet) dreams about a sudden growth of 10 teams to 13 was ridiculous in it's aspiration. We are in the middle of
a serious global recession - not great timing for start-up companies in the high risk business of F1. Plus any new team building their plans for 2010 would have to have been incredibly naive not to see the likelihood of the established teams seeking a very big compromise or back-down on the spending cap.

Some people seem to think the new teams are to be nurtured to the detriment of the current committed teams. In business you look after your existing customers before running around expanding your client base. The FOTA teams whether you like their unified approach ARE the core of F1 and the likes of Campos have to find the best way to compete in a very difficult business, but business was never meant to be easy.