The Formula One Teams’ Association wants to hold urgent talks with the sport’s governing body over the proposed voluntary budget cap.
Team chiefs met Wednesday in London, a week after cost-cutting measures were announced by the World Motor Sport Council. The Canadian Press
“FOTA has concerns with the decisions taken at the last WMSC (world motor sport council) meeting regarding the 2010 regulations and therefore asks to begin urgent consultations with the FIA,” the body said in a brief statement.
The teams also agreed to continue working together “in a methodical manner” to agree further cost reductions for next year and 2011.
The FIA announced last week that teams willing to compete with an optional 40 million pound ($60.32 million) cost cap would be allowed greater technical freedom than those continuing with unlimited budgets. Guardian.co.uk
Six companies have been in touch with Bernie Ecclestone to run Formula One teams next season but only the fittest will get on to the grid for a £40million budget which, he says, will be a money-spinner.
“The big teams don’t get it because it’s not in their DNA to make money in Formula One. All they want to do is spend, spend, spend,” he said.
“But that is there for everyone to see. The people who want in can see that this is a figure at which they can make a profit – and that’swhat business is all about, isn’t it?
“You don’t have to spend this figure. It is only the cap. There are a lot of clever people out there who could maybe do a lot more with less. Look at how Brawn have gone this season and their budget is a lot less than quite a few teams who are behind them.
“We want to get back to invention and imagination in F1 and away from a spending race. Don’t forget, there are teams spending £250m a year at the moment. UK Express
FOTA, the latest in a long line of organisations created to give the teams a united voice in their battles with the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone, the sport’s commercial rights holder, has suffered a traumatic few weeks.
Full of self-congratulation after a winter in which they managed to cut costs for this season in the wake of Honda’s sudden departure, the FOTA members have since adopted their default position at each other’s throats, first over diffusers and now budget caps, playing into Max Mosley’s and Ecclestone’s hands.
However, that meeting will have to wait with FIA president Mosley having cancelled his trip to Barcelona following the death of his son Alexander from a suspected drugs overdose. Telegraph.co.uk
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