Button:contracts board announcement/Williams response.

[spider]

http://www.f1racing.net/en/news.php?newsID=59423

The FIA Contract Recognition Board (CRB) acknowledged, in writing to the BAR F1 team, that the BAR Contract with Jenson Button is the only valid contract registered for the 2005 season.

A driver's "super license" - his right to drive in Formula 1 - is only valid if his contract has been lodged with and registered by the CRB and all driver contracts contain a provision submitting all priority disputes to the CRB.

The CRB was established in 1992 to regulate driver contracts and resolve priority disputes where a driver enters into a new contract with a Formula 1 team when a clearly established and registered contract is already in existence.

The purpose of the CRB is to enforce driver contracts and provide a swift international resolution to conflicts which if channelled through national legal systems could be drawn-out and could result in a wholly inappropriate remedy for the innocent party and for the sport as a whole.

All signatories to the Concorde Agreement are bound by the procedures of the CRB which requires any new driver contract to be registered 'forthwith' i.e. immediately, and without delay, in order to establish its validity.

The BAR team has willingly submitted itself to this process which is final and binding on all parties.

[Liz]

And here's me thinking the boy had learned a lot since his original stint at Williams ...

I'm more surprised at Williams than I am at Bunsen.

[Tony Crossley]

hmm, Williams are still saying he will drive for them despite the above release.
(Reported on website address in post 1)

[Suzy]

Hang on a second folks and read the press release again.

The significant sentence is: "The FIA Contract Recognition Board acknowledged, in writing, that, as of today, the BAR Contract with Jenson Button is the only valid contract registered for the 2005 season."

The CRB holds copies of ALL driver contracts on its file. What they've told BAR is that it has a copy of Jenson Button's contract for 2005 with BAR. As yet it does NOT have a copy of Jenson Button's contract with Williams on file.

The CRB will not be able to rule on the validity of either contract until it has them both in its possession and the three independent lawyers have looked at them.

[Adam43]

Jenson has been called to the FIA press conference on Thursday (as has Webber). Should be fun!

[Glen]

The board recognises only this contract, but I don't imagine that they read and vet every contract for water-tightness. As I understand it, Button's management's point of view is that the phrasing of the contract between Honda and BAR is insufficiently strong - since Jenson's continuing involvement with BAR is contingent on Honda's cast-iron committment to the team, and Honda have failed to deliver that committment (albeit by a very minor degree). This means tha the validity of the BAR?Button contract is dependent on another legal arrangement over which the CRB have no jurisdiction.

So it ain't over by a long way.

I think it is unfair to put the blame for all this on Jenson Button - he is after all just a driver, not a lawyer.

[Glen]

Furthermore (sorry - I have not contributed to this debate until now) I think Jenson is right to try and go to Williams. The best he can expect is for Honda to deliver on their slightly weakly worded promise of staying with BAR - even then he would be saddled with an engine partner that still has not proven itself capable of suppling reliable engines. Engine life will be a major issue in 2005 and beyond - if you had to put money on which company will produce a World Championship winning engine (ie a reliable engine) would you choose Honda or BMW?

[ASCII Man]

Why, Honda ofcourse!

[N I Tram]

The most likely outcome is that Williams will have to buy out the contract. Having announced the signing, it would be a major climbdown for such a respected experienced team to go back on it.

The problem seems to be connected to how secure the Honda deal is. Apparently Honda included a clause that, if the rules are changed enough that their abilities become irrelevent, they can get-out of the contract - and Jenson lawyers have sneakily exploited this to claim that the contract isn't valid.

[PaulSands]

Personally I think Jenson should swallow his pride and honour his agreement with BAR and while he's at it he should sack his management for getting him into this sh*tstorm. All throughout this season Button had been talking of being at BAR for the long run.
I personally think he would get a real crack at the world title quicker with BAR than Williams at the moment...BAR are a team on the up with an engine manufacturer that has pledged further commitment whereas Williams are in a period of change and ares somewhat on the ropes at the moment. Thats not to say they wont recover of course.

[Marcel ten Caat]

Hehe...the BAR crew prepares a very warm welcome for Button

http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpa...s_art_id=21923

[Asp]

Originally posted by Suzy
Hang on a second folks and read the press release again.

The significant sentence is: "The FIA Contract Recognition Board acknowledged, in writing, that, as of today, the BAR Contract with Jenson Button is the only valid contract registered for the 2005 season."

The CRB holds copies of ALL driver contracts on its file. What they've told BAR is that it has a copy of Jenson Button's contract for 2005 with BAR. As yet it does NOT have a copy of Jenson Button's contract with Williams on file.

The CRB will not be able to rule on the validity of either contract until it has them both in its possession and the three independent lawyers have looked at them.

Good point, but:
"All signatories to the Concorde Agreement are bound by the procedures of the CRB which requires any new driver contract to be registered 'forthwith' i.e. immediately, and without delay, in order to establish its validity."
So, if the CRB do not have the Williams contract - is it too late? :confused:

[Glen]

Williams haven't actually said that they have a contract have they? They have announced their intentions, but I don't recall any mention of an actual signed contract.

If Jenson's management can prove the Honda/BAR deal to be faulty then the CRB would have no way of enforcing the Button/BAR contract.

[Kicking-back]

No, it's not.

It's only BAR who're saying this anyway.

Button will be in a Williams next year - no doubt.

All that is an issue is whether Frank has to compensate BAR or not.

[Down F0rce]

Originally posted by Stranger
Hehe...the BAR crew prepares a very warm welcome for Button

http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpa...s_art_id=21923

I think Williams will buy out the contract...it seems BAR don't want him. And he clearly dosen't want BAR.

[Suzy]

At the moment the CRB have not made any rulings at all. We don't know what date the CRB wrote to BAR - they may have received something from Williams since then.

I have no idea who has got what but we certainly haven't heard the last of it.

[Kicking-back]

Exactly.

[Asp]

Originally posted by Suzy
At the moment the CRB have not made any rulings at all. We don't know what date the CRB wrote to BAR - they may have received something from Williams since then.

I have no idea who has got what but we certainly haven't heard the last of it.

Just found this on planet-f1:

According to a BAR press release the Board ruled on Tuesday that Button's contract with BAR is the "only valid contract registered for the 2005 season."

If that is true, then that answers those questions. But, the Tuesday and ruling reference aren't in quotation marks, and as we haven't seen them in other references to the press release, is it Chinese Rumours by pf1? Or am I reading too much into the grammar...
Edited to add an extra thought!

[Kicking-back]

Williams may have a valid contract with him but haven't registered it yet.

Frank is due to make a statement later this afternoon.

[Mr V]

Originally posted by Stranger
Hehe...the BAR crew prepares a very warm welcome for Button

http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpa...s_art_id=21923

Photoshop anyone?

With DR still publicly saying that he wants Jenson to drive for BAR in 2005, i doubt very much that he would allow this, and since there has been a 3 week testing break, what possibility did the team have to visit a track to put this sign up?

[Super Tourer]

The devil is going to be in the detail here:

From autosport.com

Honda's new contract is believed to include an additional clause that would allow the manufacturer to 'break-away' from its three-year deal should the new rules that are currently being discussed by the FIA and the 10 teams not be to its liking.

This comes back to the supposed intend. On the face of it seems that Honda have allowed themselves a 'get out' of BAR's contract should they not like the new rules, and Button's legal experts have seemingly used this same clause as contract break issue.

As KB says the BAR contract is the one the CRB have at the moment, but that's not to say it cannot be made invalid under the terms or effects of other contracts agreed by the team.

Bearing in mind that new engine rules haven't been agreed yet, no doubt Button's legal bods are saying that until then Honda's commitment is not certain as they have retained the right to walk away if they are not in agreement.

Ironically, of all the engine makers pondering a move to a V8 configuration, BMW are the most active opponents of it and have intimated they may not continue with that format in place.

[Adam43]

Originally posted by Stranger
Hehe...the BAR crew prepares a very warm welcome for Button

http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpa...s_art_id=21923

Surely this is a fake. I'd have thought the more diginified approach would be to get on with your job in a professional manner. Moral high ground and all that.

[ASCII Man]

It's a fake, it looks too plain with no shading and light falling on it.
Also the names are never in green...

Crappy photoshop work...

[JohnMiller]

1. The poster never said it was real. Note the 'he he' in the post.

2. It's not his current helmet design.

3. They (BAR) haven't been set-up at a track since the story broke.

[Kicking-back]

Indeed, it's a fake.

Shows how shoddy pitpass is that they'd put that in their news section with no explanation though.