Dialing in Some Putsch

As I follow the recent political soap opera, which has become Formula One, I can’t help but think of the famous quote by George Bernard Shaw, “We learn from history that we learn nothing from history.”

In case you’ve missed it (or more likely, lost interest in caring), Formula One has been embroiled in another political game of brinksmanship over the tried and true issues of governance and money. In both cases, the question is who currently has it and who should get it in the future. At its core, the teams have long been unhappy with their share of the commercial spoils of Formula One, which have been controlled for the past 20-plus years by Bernie Ecclestone. Added to this is the recent controversy over the FIA dictating a mandatory budget cap for teams, starting next year, and general disillusionment  with FIA president Max Mosley’s administration of the series. The net result of these seeds of discontent was that the collective bargaining organization for the teams (FOTA) announced that they would be breaking away from the FIA to start their own, rival championship next year. Hmm, this sounds vaguely familiar. If only I could remember where I’ve seen this before… Ah, yes! Formula One, circa 1980! The great irony in all of this is that the duo on the receiving end of the current team revolt—Max Mosley and Bernie Ecclestone—were the architects of an identical coup in the early 1980s.