UpdateF1 >> Formula 1 News > Budget cap 'too low'

STR boss adds opinion

Apr.24 (GMM) Max Mosley is tempting bigger formula one teams to also sign up for a budget cap next year.

The FIA president has already unveiled plans for a 33m euro cap, including all team expenditure, that was designed for small teams.

The bigger teams, meanwhile, would have been able to continue spending vast sums, but they would have been more technically limited than their capped rivals.

However, in a move seen as an invitation for the big teams to also join in, Mosley this week wrote to team principals informing them that driver salaries and marketing may now be excluded from the caps next year.

Additionally, the teams - having ruled out Mosley's initial 'two-tier' system - were asked by Mosley to respond to whether the 33m euro figure needs to be modified.

"It should be an gradual adjustment (from a higher to a lower cap) over three or four years," BMW's Mario Theissen told Germany's Auto Motor und Sport. "The big teams can't just get rid of hundreds of jobs tomorrow."

Fascinatingly, even the boss of a small team - Toro Rosso's Franz Tost - thinks 33m is too low. "You can't just turned back the clock to the 80s," he said.

"The working processes have become more complex and therefore more expensive; the materials cost a fortune," Tost added.

Mosley wants to finalise plans by presenting them for ratification to the World Motor Sport Council next Wednesday.

It is also expected that the April 29 WMSC will agree to raise the allowed number of teams to 13, which effectively will open the door for three new teams to join formula one in 2010.

Written: Fri, 24 Apr 2009 08:02:53