The National Sporting Authority of Turkey (TOSFED) and the MSO, the organiser of the Turkish Grand Prix have been called to appear before a specially convened meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council in Paris on September 19.

The World Council will consider charges that they acted in breach of the FIA Statutes, the International Sporting Code and the 2006 Formula 1 Sporting Regulations.

In other words, the FIA is going to throw thew book at the Turks.

According to our sources, the Turks will have to answer for various breaches in the rules, beginning with the very first Article of the FIA Statutes, which states that FIA members shall “refrain from manifesting racial, political or religious discrimination” in the course of their activities. In addition there is Article 151c of the FIA International Sporting Code which states that those involved in the sport should avoid “any fraudulent conduct or any act prejudicial to the interests of any competition or to the interests of motor sport generally”.

The bottom line is that Turkey could lose not only its Grand Prix but also other events as well as its representatives have not only failed to respect the rules of the sport but have made matters worse by admitting in the media that they did so deliberately. It is hard to imagine that the FIA will look kindly upon this. There may be commercial matters involved but these are unlikely to get in the way as contracts almost always have clauses to cover this kind of situation and there will no doubt be financial penalty clauses as well, governed probably by British law. In the past Bernie Ecclestone has successfully taken legal action against organisers who failed to meet their commitments, notably when he won an $11m law suit at the High Court in London when a judge ruled that he was entitled to keep the money which had been guaranteed by a South Korean company for the right to hold a race on a track in Kunsan City in 1998.

GrandPrix.com