By Jonathan Noble
The Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA) is facing fresh pressure from FIA president Max Mosley to make sure it sees through the radical cost-cutting measures agreed at the end of last year.
FOTA and the FIA reached a breakthrough agreement in December for a package of measures aimed to reduce budgets in Formula One and help it survive the worldwide economic downturn.
However, ahead of a FOTA meeting scheduled for today to discuss the next steps, Mosley has told the organisation that it is important the concepts approved by them are now seen through.
In a letter to FOTA chairman Luca di Montezemolo, Mosley has laid out what he wants to see happen over the next two years. And he has warned that even more radical concepts, such as budget capping, may be the only way to ensure the survival of the sport.
"Even before the current crisis, Formula One was not viable," said Mosley. "Costs have been so high that we have had vacancies in the Championship for some time. Secondly, it is impossible to cut costs substantially without significant change.
"Inevitably, cherished projects, facilities and sadly even people have to go. Thirdly, the fact of having recently invested in an expensive facility is not an argument for retaining it. That money has been spent. It's gone.
"What we have to avoid is forcing others to spend the same money in order to keep up. Fourthly, there is no rational argument to support the continued use in Formula One of expensive technologies which have no relevance outside the sport and are unknown (and thus of no interest) to the general public."
For 2009, Mosley has called on FOTA to agree on how to enforce a restriction of wind tunnel use, which was confirmed in an email from FIA race director Charlie Whiting earlier this month. He also says: "We are ready to agree further cost-saving measures for 2009 if these have the agreement of all the teams."
Looking further ahead, Mosley outlines additional engine restrictions that will allow proposed standard engine supplier Cosworth to supply power units for less than 5 million Euros per season. Testing will also be limited to 15,000 kilometres per year, including Friday running.
There will also be a standard gearbox produced by XR, which will also require the need for a standard underbody, and a limit on what parts of a chassis can be developed by teams.
Mosley said: "All remaining chassis elements will be either standard or frozen. We wish to develop this list in consultation with FOTA but it must be understood that it will involve a radical curtailment of R&D in respect of the chassis and hence a very significant reduction in costs. If carefully thought through, it should also reduce the need for the use of wind tunnels, CFD and simulators."
The teams have also been asked to come up with ways to reduce costs on a race weekend, and perhaps a refining of tyres with Bridgestone to lessen the need for expensive weight distribution coordination that is required because of their current characteristics.
Mosley wrote: "Apparently a lot of money is currently being spent on achieving a weight distribution which gets the best possible performance from current tyre widths. We should like to discuss with FOTA a possible change in the front-to-rear width ratio with a view to eliminating this problem. At the same time we should like to examine with Bridgestone and FOTA the possibility of introducing compounds which will not produce 'marbles'."
As well as asking for a look at a way to reduce the development costs of KERS, Mosley thinks perhaps it would ultimately be best to introduce a budget cap.
He added: "We understand that this is once again being discussed within FOTA. The idea that each team should have the same amount of money, so that success is simply a function of intellectual ability, has great appeal.
"If properly enforced, it would be a very fair system. Indeed one view is that having much more money than a rival team is just as unfair as having a bigger engine. We should like to discuss this further with FOTA.
"It may be that in present circumstances, a voluntary cap would work because no manufacturer whose board has signed off the agreed amount would be likely to allow secret additional expenditure, while independent teams would probably not have access to the necessary cash."
Summing up the aims for the future, Mosley said that the FIA could only safeguard F1 if budgets were reduced dramatically - through both cost cuts and perhaps an increase in revenue for the teams.
And he made it clear that it would not be the FIA who lost out if teams collapsed or even decided to set up a breakaway series.
"As already mentioned, the financial barriers to entry were already too high before the current world financial crisis," said Mosley.
"We had a Championship dependent on the willingness of world's car industry to continue spending vast sums on Formula One racing and the few remaining independent teams (with one exception) entirely reliant on the generosity of their billionaire owners. In current circumstances, it would be crazy to assume this can continue.
"Costs must be reduced to a point where a well-run independent team can operate profitably with just the FOM money and very moderate sponsorship. This is the only way to safeguard the Championship and allow new teams to enter to fill the gaps as well as replace those leaving."
He added: "The FIA itself would not be financially disadvantaged by a collapse of Formula One, but it would suffer in other ways. And, in any event, we believe we have a duty to do whatever is necessary to preserve the Championship for the competitors, the commercial rights holder and motor sport generally.
"We are therefore prepared to act radically. We hope that, notwithstanding the changes which must now be made, all teams which are still in business in 2010 will enter. But as already stated, we will be ready to recognise an independent series should some teams prefer to go their own way."
