This Time, Formula 1 Split May Be Real

It's been nearly 14 years now since a major auto racing division decided to split and implode itself.

Naturally, that just means it's time for another series -- this time it's Formula One -- to set itself back 20, 30 or maybe 60 years.

Reading, however, the summary released Thursday night by the Formula 1 Teams Association, one could probably argue that FOTA is trying to avoid such a relapse thanks to new rules for the 2010 championship that F1 czars Bernie Eccelstone and Max Mosley have presented.

In that document -- shall we consider it the Formula One team version of the Declaration of Independence? -- the FOTA didn't cut any corners or butter up any statements to leave a small door open for return.

Instead, they took direct shots at Eccelstone ("series will have transparent governance"), acknowledged that the attempted $60-milllion 2010 team spending limit is atrocious and outrageous, and most importantly, took direct aim at F1's reputation for usually being an outlandishly expensive form of motorsport for fans.

All out war between FOTA and F1 seems to be brewing.

The document, however, did not ever explicitly mention Eccelstone's half-witted pre-2009 attempt and pending 2010 plans to change the way the F1 World Championship is decided. Previously, he had tried to change the rule to give the championship to the driver who wins the most races until it was realized that he didn't have the power to make such a decision without the teams.

Eight teams in F1 -- including powerhouses like Scuderia Ferrari, McLaren, and the most dominant team of 2009 Brawn Racing -- are all apart of the FOTA that has agreed to establish a new series. Such a split has been attempted before and talked about for years, but it didn't ever come to fruition mainly because Ferrari backed out when push came to shove.

This time, though, they are a team that has been quite vocal in opposing Mosley's idea to implement a series in 2010 that would essentially have two classes. One class would have unlimited use of financial investment but have a narrow, disadvantaged rules package. The other class would agree to a $60 million per year spending limit but have nearly free reign of the rulebook.

Sure, it's a novel idea and a smart one in this worldwide economy to think about cutting back, but when teams in F1 have been used to spending half of a billion per year instead of a half of a hundred million, that's not a step that can just happen overnight.

The spending limit was originally seen as a great way for the startup F1 team in the United States to make a succesful entrance to the sport in 2010 -- though now, it seems that the field they'll compete against won't be what they were originally looking for.