Max Mosley has again sought to defend the introduction of his controversial budget cap into Formula 1, insisting that without the arrival of new entrants the sport will die.
Though each and every one of the present incumbents has now lodged an entry for the 2010 campaign following the long FIA-FOTA stand-off, it is understood that all save for Williams have done so on the strict condition that the cap - designed to entice more competitors to swell the grid numbers - is deferred until 2011 at the earliest, thereby buying the teams more time to negotiate.
FOTA’s line is that for organisations currently spending in the region of £150 million to £200 million, such a significant reduction in such a short space of time is simply unworkable - and a compromise is believed to have been agreed in principle whereby the upper limit will be brought down gradually, rather than in one fell swoop. Yahoo! Eurosport
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Statements from the team state that a grid populated by names like Team USF1, Campos Meta 1, Lola and Litespeed GP cannot “have the same value as today’s Formula 1, where Ferrari, the big car manufacturers and teams who created the history of this sport compete,” adding: “Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to call it Formula GP3?”
For his part, Mosley has dismissed these fears, arguing that without fresh teams and talent entering the sport, Formula one could suffer in the long term.
“No sport is healthy without new people coming in,” said Mosley. “Ferrari forget that the current BMW team started as Sauber, the current Williams team started with Williams buying a March [and] Tyrrell started a little team at the end of the sixties that was Honda and is now Brawn.”
“Even Enzo Ferrari himself came along in 1948 and started from nothing. If you stopped those new entrepreneurs coming in, Formula 1 will die. You can’t have just a lot of old men running it.” ESPN Star Sports
Nevertheless, though the FOTA statement doesn’t spell out the exact nature of compromise, it is quite clear that someone must have brokered peace between the FOTA and FIA. And that someone could very well have been those teams, for whom F1 is everything… not only means of revenue but also the means of their existence. These couldn’t have afforded either of the side stretching the debate beyond a limit.
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This fracas has put up an important question… will the fate of F1 be decided by the administrators and teams alone? Considering that ticket-buying fans and TV viewers all over the world are the biggest contributors in keeping the sport alive, will their opinions be ever taken into consideration?
No one can deny that F1 has a cult following and there are millions of fans who cannot imagine F1 getting folded up. What matters to them are the cars lining up on the grid and roaring to life after getting the green signal. They want racing… they want to see cars designed and built using cutting edge technology… That’s all what matters. They are least bothered about the politics and backroom manoeuverings. Daily News & Analysis
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