Mosley Gone as Formula 1 Avoids Split

You get the feeling this is kind of what the renegade Formula 1 teams wanted all along.

Wednesday, F1 and FOTA [Formula One Teams Association] announced that plans from last week for the international racing series to split in 2010 had been halted after a deal between the two was struck.

Terms of the deal -- while not completely released -- include plans for Max Mosley, the righthand man for F1 chief Bernie Eccelstone, to take a backseat and leave the sport entirely at the end of his term in October, in addition to plans to scrap the class-creating plans for financial cutbacks.

F1 released a statement explaining, in bare terms, what had been agreed upon:

"All currently competing teams have committed to the FIA Formula One World Championship.

There will be no alternative series or championship and the rules for 2010 onwards will be the 2009 regulations as well as further regulations agreed prior to 29 April 2009.

As part of this agreement, the teams will, within two years, reduce the costs of competing in the championship to the level of the early 1990s. The manufacturer teams have agreed to assist the new entries for 2010 by providing technical assistance."

The deal will undoubtedly help F1 start to get over the mess of a season it has now found itself embroiled in thanks to a plethora of bad moves, failed rule changes and legal protests. Among it all, last year's Lewis Hamilton faced expulsion while the nobody Brawn Racing from a year ago has come to dominate the series with driver Jenson Button in 2009.

It reached the tipping point last week when FOTA -- a group consisting of nearly all of the big names in the sport -- announced plans to create a rival sanctioning body effective in 2010 with promises to implement common sense to nearly every part of the sport, including the fan aspect.

It appeared to be a lot of talk, but one would imagine that a few F1 fans will be looking for the sport to make changes that are important to them for the 2010 season. The biggest beef, though, from FOTA was a Mosley-led idea to create a two-class system in the sport that had some teams competing with wide-ranging rules for a $60 million budget or teams competing under harsh rules with unlimited funding.

The scandal from a year ago involving Mosley being involved with five prostitutes in a London hotel room didn't exactly leave the sport behind the often dictatorial leader.