Formula One Features — December 1989

The recent battle between McLaren and the FIA/FISA looks set to spill over into the civil courts. The controversy was triggered by the accident involving the two McLarens of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost on lap 47 of the Japanese GP. Senna was excluded from the results. The McLaren team appealed against the decision to the FIA International Court of Appeal: the highest court in motor sport.

We write blithely of the FIA and FISA, of the International Court of Appeal and the World Motor Sport Council. Generally, all are lumped together under the title Paris, from where all the major decisions in international motor sport are made. But how does it all work? And who really controls motor sport?

What CAN you say about Formula 1 in 1989? Even the most hardened and cynical observers have been getting the giggles this year. Neighbours was never like this! No, folks, Formula 1 makes Dallas look like a kiddies programme.

FISA President Jean-Marie Balestre recently suggested that "prestigious heads may risk a fall" over the Suzuka affair. At a press conference in Paris last week Balestre launched a further attack in the extraordinary battle of wills between FISA and McLaren.