Formula Continental

For some time now, a consortium of major manufacturers has been threatening its own series, the Grand Prix World Champion­ship. It will be interesting to see how that pans out because the trouble with motor manufacturers is that they are only in the sport for as long as it suits them. Usually, it is a case that members of the board want to swan around F1 paddocks, with the shareholders picking up the tab. By contrast, racing is the reason why Williams and McLaren exist.

When there is a schism in any sport, the usual reason is money first, followed by power. We have seen it time and again, on one side there has been the players, on the other there has been men in blazers. In the middle was a lot of dishonesty and amateur athletes finding stuffed envelopes in their hotel rooms. Mark Kramer took tennis kicking and screaming into the modern world. In Formula One, there was the FISA/FOCA “war,” which also led to the formation of CART. Roger Penske had been in F1 when FOCA was formulating its strategy.