FOTA looking to brighter future

The Formula One Teams' Association have outlined a plan to breathe new life into the sport with FIA president Max Mosley out of the picture.

The signs earlier this week was that Thursday's planned FOTA meeting at Bologna airport would have culminated in the rubber-stamping of a breakaway series.

Instead, it took on a more positive air in the wake of Wednesday's peace pact between the FIA and FOTA as a revolution, not a revolt, eventually unfolded.

The teams gained the change in governance they demanded as Mosley will not stand for re-election when his mandate ends in October, bringing to a close 16 years of rule. There will also be no budget cap for next year, instead a 'glidepath' through to 2011 towards early 1990s levels of spending, which is vague, but amounts to around £40million.

But what was clear from the meeting was a need to improve the show, to re-ignite the passion of the fans given the empty seats viewed recently in such places as Shanghai and Istanbul.

"Formula One needs fresh air, ideas, improvement, and we will work together to achieve this goal," insisted Ferrari president and FOTA chairman Luca di Montezemolo.

The Italian proved to be Mosley's staunchest critic and prime mover behind a rival championship during the past two months in which the battle has raged between the two sides. But after all the wrangling and the mud-slinging off track, the key intention now is to deliver on it a sport worthy of its name.

As McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh remarked: "We have concentrated on too many negative issues in the last few months.

"There is a clear commitment from all of the teams to work on the show and the entertainment, on making sure we reflect the wishes of the fans who support us - I think we can make the sport better.

"I hope that yesterday we reached a historic point for Formula One, enabling us perhaps to look outwards rather than continually looking in at the inner workings of our sport. It is an exciting moment for our sport and one that can only build to being bigger and better."