Formula 1’s teams and the sport’s governing body, the FIA, say they have made “small progress” in talks over the controversial £40m budget cap.
Team bosses met with Max Mosley on Friday having earlier united in their opposition to the cap proposed for 2010 by the FIA president.
The teams said they may pull out of F1 altogether if the row is not resolved.
But discussions will now continue on Saturday in Monaco after a meeting that Mosley described as “constructive”.
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Mosley, who says a budget cap is necessary to safeguard the future of the sport in the global financial crisis, said he felt optimistic following the meeting.
“We had a good constructive meeting and there are on-going discussions,” he said. “We spent three hours in there. Everybody knows what the issues are.
“I’m always confident there will be an agreement.” BBC Sport
Ross Brawn, majority shareholder of Brawn GP, added: “There is still some way to go but we have gone forwards rather than backwards.”
The latest development in the saga will come as a huge relief to fans of a sport that has seemed intent on self-destruction in recent weeks. Ferrari have made repeated threats to quit and the FIA have goaded them on, declaring that the sport could survive the loss of its oldest and most prestigious marque. Finally, it would appear, common sense has prevailed.
It is understood the teams have conceded that a budget cap can be made to work in principle, while they in turn have elicited further concessions from the FIA. Already engine costs, drivers’ salaries and marketing are outside the £40 million cap, meaning the real level of the cap is closer to £100 million. The possibility of a two-tier series is definitely out.
“What we want is that Formula One stays as Formula One,” declared Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo, chairman of the Formula One Teams Association (Fota). “We hope that it doesn’t become something different and go towards constant changes which confuse the public… that there should be stability and that we work over the next two years to arrive at a way of further reducing costs.” Telegraph.co.uk
The details of the negotiations were being closely guarded, but there were suggestions that Mosley may have offered further flexibility on expenditure that could be excluded from the cap.
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So far engine costs for 2010 are excluded, along with marketing budgets, driver salaries and other expenditure not related to car performance. Mosley may have offered to exclude engine costs up to 2013, to help to soften the impact of the cap, but he is thought not to have given any ground on his overall determination to bring in the scheme.
The talks came amid pressure on Mosley to change what teams view as his autocratic style. Patrick Head, the joint owner of Williams, chose his words carefully when he said: “Even some of the teams that might accept the cap are not really very happy about the governance of the sport.” Times Online
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