Well Brawn GP with dubious diffuser wins Aussie GP. While I'm happy enough that an underdog team has found a loophole in the rules to make a quick car - just like the good old days - it does bother me that they've completely undermined the whole spirit and idea of the new rules - which was less downforce, more overtaking.

And I'm happy to see full slicks back, but what is the fucking point of having to run soft and medium tyres? Why can't we go back to the old rules where tyre companies brought 2 compounds to a race weekend and teams got to choose which tyre to run on? Or let them use them, not mandate having to? It seems pointless the way it is now.

I don't agree with the cap rule for several reasons - firstly, we're no talking about a salary cap for a football team here - you are saying just how much teams may spend on designing and building a car within the rules. But not all the teams are based in the same country - which means that costs are not equal, for a start.

Really the problem to me seems to be that the more intricate and tighter the rules become, the more money you have to spend to gain an advantage. With looser rules there is more room for innovation and different approaches, but when everything is made to be more and more regulated and identical then you have to spend more and more money to find small advantages.

But if teams pull out then F1 is no longer viable - so they have a vested interest in not pricing the smaller teams out of competition - except that hasn't happened yet - which shows that the draw of F1 is obviously worth the money chucked at it. Why would you spend so much money racing in a series if it wasn't?

What Max and Bernie want is now to create an El Cheapo budget version of F1 which wouldn't be worthy of the name. The cars this year look crap already - like F2s or F3000 cars or something from about 10 or 15 years ago. If we go down the budget route you may as well let them run fucking go-carts, not Formula One cars.

Won't be a spending cap now. Bernie has backed down.

In his Nazi bondage gear.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/spo.../formula_one/8141428.stm

The eight members of the Formula 1 Teams Association (Fota) walked out of a meeting with the sport's governing body, the FIA, on Wednesday.

The meeting, at Germany's Nurburgring, was held to discuss next year's rules and Fota's proposed changes to them.

But the Fota teams left when told they had not entered the 2010 championship and therefore had no voting rights on technical and sporting regulations.

A Fota statement said the row "puts the future of Formula 1 in jeopardy".

It is the latest incident in a bitter, long-running argument between Fota and the FIA over planned budgetary and technical changes which has threatened to tear the sport apart.

The eight Fota teams - Ferrari, McLaren, BMW Sauber, Renault, Toyota, Red Bull Racing, Toro Rosso and Brawn GP - insist they have entered the 2010 championship.

It is clear to the Fota teams that the basis of the 2010 technical and sporting regulations was already established in Paris Fota statement

"It will be remembered all eight active Fota members were included on the 'accepted' entry list as endorsed by the FIA World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) and communicated by FIA press statement on 24 June," said Fota.

The association added that because it was now being claimed they had not entered, they had "requested a postponement of today's meetings".

Fota continued: "This was rejected on the grounds no new Concorde Agreement would be permitted before a unanimous approval of the 2010 regulations was achieved.

"However, it is clear to the Fota teams that the basis of the 2010 technical and sporting regulations was already established in Paris.

"As endorsed by the World Motor Sport Council and clearly stated in the FIA press statement of 24 June 'the rules for 2010 onwards will be the 2009 regulations as well as further regulations agreed prior to 29 April, 2009'.

"At no point in the Paris discussions was any requirement for unanimous agreement on regulations change expressed.

"To subsequently go against the will of the WMSC and the detail of the Paris agreement puts the future of Formula 1 in jeopardy.

606: DEBATE Just when we thought a deal had been done, more posturing and discord rather than debate and concorde. Perhaps we still have a way to go before the "Formula" for 2010 is agreed. weareracing

"As a result of these statements, the Fota representatives at the subsequent Technical Working Group were not able to exercise their rights and therefore had no option other than to terminate their participation.

"The Fota members undertook the Paris agreement and the subsequent discussions in good faith and with a desire to engage with all new and existing teams on the future of Formula 1."

The FIA insisted in a statement of its own that it had wanted to discuss proposals for 2010.

The FIA added: "Unfortunately, no discussion was possible because Fota walked out of the meeting."

The long-running row between Fota and the FIA appeared to have been resolved in June, when an agreement was reached between F1's governing body and the Fota teams to prevent a breakaway series.

Under the terms of that deal a proposed budget cap was postponed and the teams won significant concessions on rule changes and the governance of the sport, while Max Mosley agreed not to stand for re-election as president of the FIA.

Wednesday's truncated meeting was attended by Williams and Force India, who are suspended from Fota after applying for unconditional entries to race in 2010 at the height of the budget cap crisis.

Formula 1's three new teams, Campos Grand Prix, Manor and US F1, also attended the meeting at the Nurburgring ahead of Sunday's German Grand Prix.

As if F1 needed any more farce and controversy... but good riddance to that egomaniac Briatore, anyway.