Reorganization at the Head of FOTA
If Martin Whitmarsh (McLaren) remains as president and Christian Horner (Red Bull) stays as head of the sports committee, the FOTA will see a number of changes at its top since Eric Boullier (Lotus Renault GP) replaces Stefano Domenicali (Ferrari) as vice-president while Aldo Costa (Ferrari) will take Ross Brawn's (Mercedes GP) place as head of the technical committee of the teams' association.
It’s therefore a sort of consecration for the Frenchman from Lotus Renault GP since he is the latest to have arrived as team principal of one of the leading teams. He now finds himself as the number two of the structure that includes all the F1 teams, with the notable exception of HRT, which exited last December.
The distribution of roles, which indicates the influence zones within the paddock, clearly shows that this association is primarily led by the big teams (Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari, Lotus Renault GP) and that the smaller teams (Williams, Sauber, Force India, Team Lotus, Toro Rosso, and Virgin) have no say and must simply follow the desires of the top teams. This may make HRT’s decision, which stated that “it made no sense for a small team like ours, due to the politics,” more understandable.
It is, however, somewhat surprising that Mercedes GP no longer has any representative at the head of one of the association’s committees, considering that the Stuttgart manufacturer remains one of the last major manufacturers involved in F1.
With the participation of RacingBusiness.fr
