Whitmarsh to step down from FOTA

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh will not stand for re-election to continue his role as chairman of FOTA.

The McLaren team boss has held the position since 2009 when he took over from Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo, who was the organisations first chairman.

The Formula One Teams' Association was formed in 2008 and has gone through a number of difficult periods as the politics of Formula One shifts from one crisis and argument to the next.

Some even question the importance of FOTA following a number of high profile exits, with Ferrari and Red Bull quitting last year.

McLaren have remained strong supporters of FOTA and while Whitmarsh will not stand for re-election, McLaren will continue to support the group.

'We have tried to be a galvanising, stabilising force, trying to understand the issues of all the players, Whatever happens, we'll continue to try and do those things. But I think it would be quite neat for someone else to have a go at it. Whitmarsh said in a statement released to the BBC.

One of the problems in Formula One where a functional FOTA can help influence decisions is the current debate over Formula One engines.

In 2014 engine regulations are changing, Formula One teams will run with 1.6-litre V6 engines.

This is a change from the current 2.4-litre V8s that teams are running this season and an alteration to the previously proposed 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbo units that had initially been agreed.

In 2006 when the engines changed from V10's to V8's Toro Rosso was given a temporary dispensation to continue running with V10 engines.

They had to be restricted, but it acted as a way of enabling the teams to transition between the two types of engines.

With restrictions in place over how many teams engine manufacturers can supply, there may have to be a similar scenario in 2014, simply because there will not be enough engines to go around!

It's not an ideal scenario, but it may have to happen.

Whitmarsh told Autosport Magazine : 'It's feasible, I don't think it's an attractive thing to do, personally. Equivalence formulas, we have had it before, we had it in '88, we had turbos and normally aspirateds when we were coming the other way. It wasn't such a bad memory for McLaren, but it wasn't an attractive formula.'

'I think you'd have to arrange, if you did it, such that the new turbo engines have advantage over normally aspirated, so you're creating a two-tier championship, which is I think not an attractive thing to have,'