A meeting of the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) was held on Thursday to further detail plans first agreed with the FIA last month.
It was agreed that aerodynamic testing will be limited from next season, while gearbox and engine costs will be significantly reduced from 2010.
“The teams detailed and signed a comprehensive Aerodynamic Test Restrictions Agreement, effective in 2009,” said a statement released by the group after an executive committee meeting.
“All of the teams are committed to working together in a rational and systematic manner ... to effectively reduce the costs inherent to Formula One,” FOTA said in a statement.
Further changes being considered for introduction after next season may be more radical, as FIA seeks to ensure the sport’s long-term survival. Races could even be shortened to save money, and refueling may be banned starting in 2010—which could dramatically alter the spectacle for fans.
“The FOTA Technical Regulations Working Group will now conclude the elimination of expensive materials and identify further opportunities to reduce the cost of components and systems which do not deliver performance differentiation,” the release said.
After a brief pause for festivities, cost-cutting was firmly back on the Formula One agenda on Thursday with FIA president Max Mosley even mooting the controversial idea of a budget cap.
“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,” Mosley wrote in a letter to Ferrari president Luca di Montezemelo, who chairs the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA).
“We are prepared to act radically,” Mosley had said in his letter. “We hope, notwithstanding the changes which must now be made, that all teams which are still in business in 2010 will enter. But we will be ready to recognise an independent series should some teams prefer to go their own way.”
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