FIA announces cost-saving agreement with F1 teams
F1 teams and FIA announce agreement over cost-saving changes
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Wednesday, 22, Oct 2008 12:50
Formula one's world governing body the FIA has announced an agreement has been reached with the teams over cost-saving measures for the next two seasons.
At a meeting in Geneva yesterday, the FIA sat down with representatives from across the sport, including the group in charge of promoting the sport - Formula One Management (FOM) - with a view to finding ways of streamlining costs due to the current bleak global economic climate.
No details have yet been released over the proposed changes for 2009 and 2010, although there was talk of standardising engine types and suppliers and a number of aspects of the car chassis.
A brief joint announcement from FOM and the FIA said the meeting had "produced significant cost savings for 2009 and 2010".
"FOTA are working urgently on further proposals for 2010 and thereafter," it added.
In a statement setting out its objectives ahead of the Geneva meeting, the governing body said: "The FIA believes that formula one costs are unsustainable.
"Even before current global financial problems, teams were spending far more than their incomes, insofar as these consist of sponsorship plus FOM money.
"As a result, the independent teams are now dependent on the goodwill of rich individuals, while the manufacturers’ teams depend on massive hand-outs from their parent companies.
"There is now a real danger that in some cases these subsidies will cease.
"This could result in a reduction in the number of competitors, adding to the two team vacancies we already have and reducing the grid to an unacceptable level.
The FIA's view is that formula one can only be healthy if a team can race competitively for a budget at or very close to what it gets from FOM."
It was proposed beforehand that any cost-cutting measures would look to focus on areas that are "currently the subject of major expenditure but add nothing to the spectacle or to the public interest of formula one".
This, the FIA added, consists of the expensive development of "common parts… of the chassis" such as standard suspension, wheels and underbody.