Formula One: FIA fine US team €225,000 for pulling out
Formula One (F1), they say is by far the most expensive sport in the world, the global recession saw many of the big names not being able to match the demands of the game, and decided to sideline themselves. Two of the teams were Toyota and Honda.
Honda though pulled out before the 2009 season, and their team principal Ross Brawn decided to take over the same team and launched it as Brawn GP and to everyone’s surprise Brawn GP actually won the world championship.
There were some other teams that pulled out of the sport, but the teams that made their way into the sport were Lotus and Hespania. There was another big name set to make its debut in the 2010 season that was Defunct US F1, but due to financial problems they could not get the big bucks ready in time for the start of the season and had to pull out at the 11th hour.
FIA the governing body for F1 did not take that too lightly and have imposed a ban on Defunct US F1 from the sport, along with a fine of 309,000 Euros that is equal to £255,000. And FIA have said that the American team will not be able to take part in any future Formula One events.
The fine is basically the same amount that the team had submitted as their entry fee for the season. So that amount will be retained by FIA instead of them paying the fine.
The American team now have about a week in which they can launch an appeal against the ban and the fine, though they are not really expected to contest the verdict given by FIA.
Before the start of 2010 season, Defunct US F1 was one of four new teams named to start the season but just months before the start of the season, the team ran into some financial problems.
Bernie Ecclestone the F1 Chief had predicted that he feels that the US team will not be able to make it to the start of the season; he made his fears public way back in December 2009(almost 4 months before the start of the season).
The team had all but confirmed to the FIA that they will be ready just a month before the first race in Bahrain, and continued to ask FIA for some more time to finalise their financial problems. But later just 3 weeks before that start of the first race, US F1 finally told the FIA that they will not be able to start the season, since they are not ready in terms of finances.
The fact that the team had told the authorities about their decision so close to the start of the season, upset FIA even more and while looking into the case, World Motor Sport Council made sure that US F1 were dealt with strictly, as they had caused huge amount of problems to the sport by pulling out at the 11th hour.
US F1 were then termed guilty of infringement of the code of International sports, and also of not following the 2010 F1 Championship regulations, and also of not fulfilling the obligations by not taking part in the championship.
The FIA in an official statement said that the team had displayed inefficient financial management and had not really understood the financial needs to start the season in F1, which in result caused severe problems to the sport.
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