The first warning shots of a new war

The British Grand Prix was a successful event on track, but some off-track controversies threatened to overshadow the action. Dieter Rencken looks at the storms that may be brewing in F1

By comparison with last year's edition, the 2010 British Grand Prix was a Sunday School picnic, with the acrimony and politics of the FIA/FOTA war well and truly forgotten. True, they were recalled with widespread shudders on Friday evening during the extremely pleasant BRDC-hosted media BBQ – first laid on a year ago when it was believed that event would be the last on the all-time classic circuit after a chancer persuaded Ecclestone Donington had the wherewithal to hijack the race – but, for the rest, the acid of June 2009 was best left forgotten.

There was a brief flurry of excitement after a Sunday newspaper disclosed a full month after this revelation – see below * - that all was possibly not totally kosher with the financial arrangements struck by Bernie Ecclestone when a commercial deal was struck between the F1 tsar and a Max Mosley-dominated FIA, for suddenly, come 2011, it appears the governing body faces a €7m (£6m) shortfall due to omission of a crucial clause in the 113-year commercial rights' contract.

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