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For the first time in living memory, a raft of changes to Formula 1 have been made with unanimous agreement - between the teams with each other, and between the teams and the governing body. The cost-cutting measures announced by the FIA World Council last week, a couple of days after the teams' FOTA organisation had met with Max Mosley, should serve the sport well in the immediate future. But the unanimity is more remarkable than the list of changes. Partly it's probably down to the measure of panic induced by the world economy, a feeling intensified by the Honda pull-out, but more than that it's about team solidarity. The way in which the teams have laid down their weapons and come out into neutral territory to discuss their mutual futures is unprecedented. How has it happened, and how could it be that the leaders of the top two teams should be so instrumental in this armistice when, just one year ago, they were daggers drawn in the aftermath of the spy scandal? Common sense has finally prevailed over competitive paranoia, for now at least. That paranoia has always ruled. It's the natural state of any truly competitive being, always looking where the next ambush is coming from. This, of course, has made it extremely easy over the years for Mosley and Bernie Ecclestone to steer their chosen course by divide and rule. Because the teams never agreed about anything, because their viewpoint was always coloured by competitive advantage and paranoia, the powers could do whatever they chose. Subscribe for complete access
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