There is considerable interest in f1 circles at the moment with regard to apparent new entries crawling out of the woodwork, this happening in conjunction with renewed press interest – thanks to a well-timed letter – of the proposed ‘two tier’ budget cap.
We are hearing stories of ‘up to eight’ teams in negotiations with Cosworth over the engine that will accompany the FIA budget cap proposal, but so far only two such have come forward and admitted it – Lola and Prodrive.
The timing is all very curious, as is the appearance across internet news sites of rumour after rumour regarding GP2 teams that are looking at moving up into F1, and an apparent 13 slots on the grid next year. At the same time we are hearing of the possible withdrawal of Mercedes-Benz and Renault from the sport.
As I said, all very curious – and a mite suspicious.
Max Mosley has, we hear, written to the teams asking for their idea of an ‘ideal’ budget for an f1 team as presumably he has realised that £30million – not including, surprisingly, the driver salary of hospitality costs – is simply ridiculous. In fact, FOTA – that is the collective teams – have already furnished him with a quite detailed proposal, which – as appears to be the norm – he chose to ignore.
There is a distinct element of political undercurrents in all of this, and it smacks very much of the ‘invitation to tender’ that Mosley put out a few years back in order to force the hand of the teams. You will remember that, back then, he told us all there were 11 new potential entries; closer inspection revealed a couple of viable ones, some unprepared teams from lower formulae, and a number of names on paper. In the end, the accepted entrant – Prodrive – was left high and dry when no effort was made to ensure he got what he promised.
The problem I have is that I cannot see how a two tier system would work: it is not acceptable to expect Ferrari, say, to suddenly cut its budget to a sixth of current levels. The number of redundancies involved would be colossal, the losses thanks to unused assets unfathomable, and so on. Therefore we can only say that the bigger teams would opt for the uncapped option, with restrictions. But that may well be suicide, for the only way the FIA can entice new teams with a budget capped scenario is to promise them equal footing with the rest.
Why should BMW accept that they have to spend more while the new guy gets the goods for less?
They won’t, of course, and this is where the problems begin.
Further problems come when the question is raised as to where the money is going to come from for these new £30million (plus etc) teams; are sponsors going to be queuing up to sponsor DAMS, say, or Lola? Brawn, the current championship leaders, is having little success in finding active sponsors, after all.
No, the idea is pie in the sky.
Nobody is denying that costs need to come down – for sensibility’s sake as much as anything else – but to expect the major teams to slash their budgets by such great amounts in one fell swoop is unreasonable, let alone impossible for them to do. These are, after all, businesses – there are real people, with real jobs, involved here.
Indeed, it would be acceptable to question whether the FIA has jurisdiction to tell people what they can spend; what they can build, and to what regulations yes, but what they can spend? It does not seem reasonable to me at all.
However we dress this up £30million – plus the rest – is still a lot of money; it is by no means chicken feed, especially in these days of economic strife. Notably, both Lola and Prodrive have intimated that they will be interested in entering if the terms – in this case with regard to cost and possible success – are right; as of yet they cannot possibly know, as the rules have not been set.
My stance is this: the chances of a new team – be it Prodrive, Lola or the much-vaunted USF1 outfit – entering F1 in 2010 are very slim. The chances of Mercedes-Benz withdrawing from the sport equally so (given that, it is supposed, they are concerned at the ‘non-green’ element of the sport, yet intending to remain as engine suppliers; I hate to tell you Norbert, but it’s that bit that is not green in the slightest!).
This is a considerable propaganda attack by the FIA, orchestrated to destabilise the FOTA in the light of the recent diffuser row. It’s not that I don’t want to see new teams in F1 – I would dearly love to – but that the likelihood is not great.
Written by 3 on Fri, 24 Apr 2009 08:25:57
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