Williams has become the first of the current teams to enter next year's world championship, despite the continued uncertainty about the regulations. Just 24 hours after Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA) members claimed that the current grid was 'united' in its efforts to get the 2010 regulations changed, Williams has decided to lodge an application to compete in next year's championship.
Williams CEO Adam Parr told Reuters that his team's decision did not mean that the outfit was breaking away from FOTA, however.
"The unity of FOTA is of paramount importance to Williams. Yesterday we joined the other members of FOTA in writing to the FIA (International Automobile Federation) to request a continuing effort to find a compromise concerning the regulations for 2010."
Teams have written to FIA president Max Mosley saying that they will commit to racing until 2012, and sign a new Concorde Agreement, if the FIA scraps next year's regulations.
Speaking about the Concorde Agreement, Parr said:
"We believe that under the leadership of (Ferrari president Luca) di Montezemolo and (Toyota motorsport president) John Howett, FOTA has extracted some very significant concessions from the FIA. These include not only the procedural aspects of the budget cap but also other elements that will enable the higher budget teams to participate. Having said that, Williams has -- and has always maintained -- that we have a binding contract with both FOM (Ecclestone's Formula One Management) and the FIA to participate in the world championship from 2008 to 2010."
"We have been paid in full for our participation and we feel both morally and legally obliged to make it clear that we will participate in Formula One in the future as we have in the past 30 years. We owe this to our employees, our sponsors and the fans, all of whom are affected by statements that the teams may not enter next year's championship. We will continue to work within FOTA and with FOM and FIA to find a compromise but no one should be in any doubt about our commitment to the FIA F1 world championship."
Other members of FOTA are expected to meet this week to decide what to do about their entries to next year's championship, with the deadline closing this Friday.
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