News

[blacktulip]

From ITV f1 sport

The FIA believes the £40m budget cap option will prove so attractive that “over time” all Formula 1 teams will see the merits of it, obviating the need for two different regulatory frameworks in the sport.

McLaren and Williams have already expressed concern that F1 is currently heading for a two-tier world championship in 2010, in which some teams are granted greater technical freedoms in exchange for cost constraints while others are bound by a more restrictive rulebook.

The FIA has indicated that it will seek to ensure parity of performance between the two types of car by periodically adjusting the range of technical privileges accorded to the cost-capped teams – a process that would inevitably draw it into making controversial judgements about the competitive state of play.

However, the governing body suggested on Thursday that the logic of budget-capping will eventually win round sceptical teams.

[blacktulip]

Sir Frank Williams says his team will be pushing for Formula 1 to adopt a compulsory budget cap next season to avoid the creation of a two-tier world championship.

The FIA World Motor Sport Council decided to introduce £40m cap for 2010 at its meeting in Paris on Wednesday.

But already teams are raising concerns that the optional nature of the scheme – whereby cost-capped teams will be granted greater technical freedoms in return for accepting the spending limit – will cause problems.

[blacktulip]

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh has expressed concern that the optional budget cap passed by the FIA this week will lead to a two-tier Formula 1, and has called for negotiations between F1 teams and the FIA to reach a more satisfactory outcome.

Whitmarsh said he fully shares the FIA’s cost-cutting objectives and paid tribute to the governing body for its successful initiatives to date.

But while he accepts the need to reduce team operating costs further, Whitmarsh feels a two-tier system under which some teams adopt a budget cap and others don’t is not ideal.

[blacktulip]

The FIA has addressed concerns that Formula 1’s rules unfairly disadvantage heavier drivers by raising cars’ minimum weight by 15kg from next season.

The minimum combined weight of car and driver, currently 605kg, will be increased to 620kg under new regulations approved by the FIA World Motor Sport Council on Wednesday.

In previous years most car/driver combinations have weighed in well below the limit, allowing teams to use movable ballast to improve the car’s weight distribution and handling.

But the introduction of kinetic energy recovery systems, which weigh around 30kg, has left taller drivers with almost no ballast to play with this year.

For this reason BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica has raced with KERS only once so far this season while his lighter team-mate Nick Heidfeld has used it in all four races.

[blacktulip]

New teams entering Formula 1 next year will receive financial support from the sport’s commercial rights holder as part of the drive to ensure healthy grids.

The governing FIA revealed on Thursday that Bernie Ecclestone’s Formula One Management company has agreed to pay participation fees and expenses to new outfits, which would not initially be entitled to a share of F1’s commercial revenues paid to the 10 highest-ranked constructors.

Each new team will receive an annual payment of US$10m, plus free transport of two chassis and 10,000kg of freight to each race and 20 economy-class return air tickets for events held outside Europe.

[blacktulip]

After announcing a £30million cap in mid-March, the WMSC has now increased that figure by a further £10million, with the formation of a new costs commission to police the regulation.

The sport has not seen 26 cars on the grid for 15 years, with the budget cap designed to encourage new entrants.

The World Council, spearheaded by FIA president Max Mosley and F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, clearly feel, by raising the bar, it will not deter prospective new teams from signing up.

The additional £10million also allows the current teams a further degree of leeway, although they may still feel it does not go far enough.

Teams, though, will still have freedom of choice as to whether to be governed by the cap. However, those that opt out face certain restrictions.

Any team operating within the budget will be allowed to use movable front and rear wings and, most crucially, an engine not subject to a rev limit.

Those teams will also be allowed unlimited out-of-season track testing, with no restrictions on the scale and speed of wind-tunnel testing.

[WickedPlans]

I don't see the point of a two tier system.
All the teams should compete on a level playing field.

[raikkofan]

May 1, 2009 14:05:03 GMT WickedPlans said:

I don't see the point of a two tier system.
All the teams should compete on a level playing field.

Tell that to Ross Brawn Level playing field my a fifty-five.

[blacktulip]

Max Mosley has suggested that losing Ferrari would not be a fatal blow to Formula 1, after the Italian team's president Luca di Montezemolo attacked the budget cap plans announced earlier this week.


In a letter to the FIA seen by itv.com/f1, di Montezemolo said the budget cap would be impossible to police, and that the two-tier system - with the possibility for teams to exceed the cap provided they signed up to more restrictive regulations - will be unfair and confusing for fans.


"I have always been concerned about its introduction, mainly because I consider that there are serious technical difficulties in making sure that any cap can realistically be monitored," di Montezemolo wrote.


"There are doubts as to whether or not two categories of teams should be created which will inevitably mean that one category will have an advantage over the other and that the championship will be fundamentally unfair and perhaps even biased.

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But Mosley said that the rules would not be changed at Ferrari's behest, and that although it would be sad to lose the legendary squad, F1 could live without it.


“The sport could survive without Ferrari,” Mosley told the Financial Times.


“It would be very, very sad to lose Ferrari.


"It is the Italian national team.”


The FIA president reckons the Ferrari board will be in favour of the budget cap even if the racing team is unhappy.


"I hope and think that when a team goes to its board and says, ‘I want to go to war with the FIA, because I want to be able to spend £100m more than the FIA want me to spend,’ then the board will say, ‘Why can’t you spend £40m if the other teams can do it?’” said Mosley, who believes most manufacturers will ultimately favour the cap.


"We’ve got very little room to negotiate, but the message I’m getting from the board of two or three of the manufacturers is: ‘If you can get it so that the cheque we write is not more than €25m (£22.3m), you can consider this a pretty permanent arrangement.’

[blacktulip]

One can visulise another Max V Bernie here as Ferrari are Bernies pets !!!!!!!!

[blacktulip]

After announcing a £30million cap in mid-March, the WMSC has now increased that figure by a further £10million, with the formation of a new costs commission to police the regulation.

The sport has not seen 26 cars on the grid for 15 years, with the budget cap designed to encourage new entrants.

The World Council, spearheaded by FIA president Max Mosley and F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, clearly feel, by raising the bar, it will not deter prospective new teams from signing up.

The additional £10million also allows the current teams a further degree of leeway, although they may still feel it does not go far enough.

Teams, though, will still have freedom of choice as to whether to be governed by the cap. However, those that opt out face certain restrictions.

Any team operating within the budget will be allowed to use movable front and rear wings and, most crucially, an engine not subject to a rev limit.

Those teams will also be allowed unlimited out-of-season track testing, with no restrictions on the scale and speed of wind-tunnel testing.