FEBRUARY 20, 2003

Arbitration case coming?

Our spies say that McLaren and Williams have decided that they will be going to arbitration because of the way in which the FIA decided to reinterpret its Formula 1 regulations on January 15. The two teams are believed to be arguing that the decisions break the Concorde Agreement.

Clause 17.3 of the Concorde Agreement states that all disputes arising in connection with the agreement "shall be finally settled under the Rules of Conciliation and Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce" in Lausanne, Switzerland. This is a lengthy and expensive process and it is unlikely that the two teams will have a response to their challenge before the autumn by which times the World Championship will have been running to the reinterpreted regulations for more than six months.

The FIA has said that it would not have taken the step to reinterpret the regulation if it was not confident that the decision would be upheld in arbitration.