Formula 1

The following measures to reduce costs in Formula One have been agreed by the World Motor Sport Council.

These proposed changes have the unanimous agreement of the Formula One teams, who have played a major role in their development.

Key amongst the changes is the banning of in-season testing in 2009 with low-cost engines supply, the banning of tyre warmers and refuelling :blink:from 2010.

2009

Engine
# Engine life to be doubled. Each driver will use a maximum of eight engines for the season plus four for testing (thus 20 per team).

# Limit of 18,000 rpm.

# No internal re-tuning. Adjustment to trumpets and injectors only.

# The three-race rule voted on 5 November remains in force.

# Cost of engines to independent teams will be approximately 50% of 2008 prices.

# Unanimous agreement was reached on a list of proposed changes to the Renault engine for 2009; all other engines will remain unchanged. Comparative testing will not be necessary.

Testing
# No in-season testing except during race weekend during scheduled practice.

Aerodynamic research
# No wind tunnel exceeding 60% scale and 50 metres/sec to be used after 1 January 2009.

# A formula to balance wind tunnel-based research against CFD research, if agreed between the teams, will be proposed to the FIA.


Factory activity
# Factory closures for six weeks per year, to accord with local laws.

Race weekend
# Manpower to be reduced by means of a number of measures, including sharing information on tyres and fuel to eliminate the need for “spotters”.

Sporting spectacle
# Market research is being conducted to gauge the public reaction to a number of new ideas, including possible changes to qualifying and a proposal for the substitution of medals for points for the drivers. Proposals will be submitted to the FIA when the results of the market research are known.

Note: It is estimated that these changes for 2009 will save the manufacturer teams approximately 30% of their budgets compared to 2008, while the savings for independent teams will be even greater.

2010

Power train
# Engines will be available to the independent teams for less than €5 million per team per season. These will either come from an independent supplier or be supplied by the manufacturer teams backed by guarantees of continuity. If an independent supplier, the deal will be signed no later than 20 December 2008.



# This same engine will continue to be used in 2011 and 2012 (thus no new engine for 2011).

# Subject to confirmation of practicability, the same transmission will be used by all teams.

Chassis
# A list of all elements of the chassis will be prepared and a decision taken in respect of each element as to whether or not it will remain a performance differentiator (competitive element).

# Some elements which remain performance differentiators will be homologated for the season.

# Some elements will remain performance differentiators, but use inexpensive materials.

# Elements which are not performance differentiators will be prescriptive and be obtained or manufactured in the most economical possible way.

Race weekend
# Standardised radio and telemetry systems.

# Ban on tyre warmers.

# Ban on mechanical purging of tyres.

# Ban on refuelling.

# Possible reduction in race distance or duration (proposal to follow market research).

Factory activity
# Further restrictions on aerodynamic research.

# Ban on tyre force rigs (other than vertical force rigs).

# Full analysis of factory facilities with a view to proposing further restrictions on facilities.

Longer term

The FIA and FOTA will study the possibility of an entirely new power train for 2013 based on energy efficiency (obtaining more work from less energy consumed). Rules to be framed so as to ensure that research and development of such a power train would make a real contribution to energy-efficient road transport.

An enhanced Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) system is likely to be a very significant element of an energy-efficient power train in the future. In the short term, KERS is part of the 2009 regulations, but is not compulsory. For 2010 FOTA is considering proposals for a standard KERS system. The FIA awaits proposals.

:wow: :wow: :wow: :wow: :wow:


Moves to bring South Africa back to the F1 calendar have taken a major step forwards.

Last Friday, the newly-formed company Gauteng Motor Sport Company (GMSC) made public its ambition to organise a Grand Prix near the South African province's capital Johannesburg.

The announcement coincided with the FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting in Monaco, where the cost-cutting measures for Formula One raised questions about whether the timing is right to press ahead with plans to enter the sport.

"The proposition we have isn't based on the backing of manufacturers, it's more of an economic and tourism benefit through hosting events that are established," GMSC Chief Executive Steve Watson was quoted as saying by South Africa's Times newspaper.


It is believed the F1 project is based on the existing Kyalami circuit, last host of the South African Grand Prix in 1993.

A detailed study into the feasibility of the project has been commissioned.

Watson added: "We'll conclude our assessment early next year and in terms of hosting an event, I wouldn't be pro the hosting of one before 2010 because I believe we've got enough on our hands as a country at the moment."

:clap: :clap:

That's good news. :D

The owner of British motorsport firm Prodrive says efforts to cut Formula One's high costs could tempt smaller, private teams back to the grid.

The global economic downturn has made a big impact on motorsport recently, with some major car makers pulling out.

Honda quit F1 two weeks ago, Suzuki left rallying on Monday and Prodrive partner Subaru followed on Tuesday.

"The sport will go back to how it was in the 1970s and '80s when smaller teams came to the fore," Richards said.

"And who knows? Maybe that is another opportunity for Prodrive. We're very interested if Formula One going to address the costs issue.

"I have always said there are two criteria for Prodrive's return to Formula One: one, we want to be competitive, and two, it must be financially viable. If we tick those two boxes there is a strong likelihood we will be back there."

The 56-year-old, who has had stints in F1 as boss at BAR and Benetton, wanted Prodrive to join motorsport's top tier in 2008 but had to back down because of opposition from the grid's biggest teams.

The new regulations and cost-cutting programmes certainly make (F1) more appealing

Prodrive's David Richards
They were against his plan of buying an engine/chassis off the shelf - a so-called "customer car". Their opposition centred on the belief that F1 is more than just a contest between drivers and that teams should develop their own cars.

But the economic climate has changed since then and the sport has been forced to reassess its dizzying costs and prohibitively high barriers to entry.

Last week, the sport's governing body, the FIA, brokered a cost-cutting pact with the remaining F1 team owners. Among the measures approved were commitments to use less powerful but longer-lasting engines and do away with in-season testing.

FIA boss Max Mosley's plan for all teams to use a single engine/gear-box package was resisted by the major manufacturers but a "common" engine built to agreed specifications by an independent supplier will be made available to smaller teams at a cost of no more than £4.5m per season.

This will reduce costs for those teams by 50% and the other belt-tightening measures should cut overall budgets for the larger teams by 30%. Mosley described the agreement as the "first step towards Formula One saving itself".

"It's about time - the costs associated with Formula One cannot be sustainable," said Richards, who has been linked with the up-for-sale Honda team.

"We've seen the sad withdrawal of Honda in recent weeks and unless those costs can be brought under control I fear another manufacturer may follow.

"But the new regulations and cost-cutting programmes certainly make (F1) more appealing and far more suitable for a company such as ours. It's still a challenge, not to be underestimated, but it certainly becomes far more feasible and realistic."

Speculation about the Banbury-based firm's next move will go up several notches now its lengthy World Rally Championship venture with Subaru has come to a surprisingly abrupt end, but Prodrive is not the only British motorsport company with F1 ambitions.

Founded in 2004, iSport International has enjoyed considerable success in GP2, F1's feeder series, and has nurtured the driving talents of Scott Speed, Timo Glock and Bruno Senna.

Formula One is never going to be easy but it's achievable - it's the sort of thing you'd look into more seriously now

iSport's Paul Jackson
Like Richards, iSport boss Paul Jackson has been watching F1's efforts to rein in its spending with interest.

"We're still a long way off but Formula One is moving in the right direction," said Jackson.

"The return of pure privateer teams with the ability to buy engines, gearboxes and all the other bits of technology for a sensible price and compete on a reasonably level playing-field, would be really good for the sport.

"If that was available, and the cost was realistic, it's definitely something we would be interested in looking at.

"Until now, there has been such a gulf between us and Formula One - because you have to set up a design, R&D and manufacturing facility as well as a racing team - it would have been impossible to think about competing without the backing of a major manufacturer or billionaire.

MATT SLATER BLOG
The downturn could be the saving of F1: less really could be more if the sport's decision-makers hold their nerve and push for further cost reductions

"But if you're allowed to buy all that in and run a 'customer car' it becomes more viable."

Jackson's GP2 team has an annual budget of almost £3m, still less than a tenth of what F1's backmarkers will be spending in 2009 even after last week's financial surgery. Last season, the likes of Toyota, McLaren and Ferrari had £300m-plus budgets and Honda burned a reported £270m for a championship return of just 14 points.

Jackson described these levels of over-spending as "reckless" and said overall costs would have to be halved again before F1 became a sustainable proposition for companies the size of iSport.

"If you could do it on a budget of £15-20m it would not be unrealistic to go out into the sponsorship market and say 'we can go into Formula One and give you all that global exposure at a much reduced price'.

"I think they would accept you're not going to challenge McLaren and Ferrari but you wouldn't be that far off because of the (new)restrictions. And with a lean, well-run machine you've got a chance of causing an upset.


Jenson Button, who scored three points in 2008, is on a three-year £28m deal
"It's never going to be easy but it's achievable. It's the sort of thing you'd look into more seriously now."

But for Jackson to take the plunge he would want to see further cost reductions, particularly in the area of salaries.

"There has to be a change in everybody's expectations in what they earn from the sport," he said.

"You typically get drivers and top designers earning huge sums of money that just aren't sustainable.

"They should be able to earn those sums but only on a performance basis - paying drivers and engineers millions of pounds on a retainer basis, regardless of results, is crazy.

"It's happened because the manufacturers have been able to write those big cheques to get household names. But how many talented, young drivers are out there who would drive an F1 car for £100,000 and a bonus scheme? It would be a pretty long queue."

Formula One's top drivers may be forced to take a cut in wages as the global financial crisis hits the sport.

Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali, whose driver Kimi Raikkonen's salary is the highest in F1 at £35m, said teams had to make savings in all areas.

"When teams must significantly reduce costs, one could say you need an ace to make the difference," Domenicali said.

"But I feel in the current climate the big teams won't be able any more to offer the amounts some drivers get."

Domenicali, who was talking in an interview with the Italian magazine Autosprint, said he expected salaries within F1 to undergo "a major revolution" in the next few months.

Raikkonen, the 2007 world champion, has by far the biggest salary in the sport, but there are a number of other leading F1 drivers earning salaries of more than £10m - such as Renault's double world champion Fernando Alonso and this year's title winner Lewis Hamilton of McLaren.

MATT SLATER BLOG
The downturn could be the saving of F1: less really could be more if the sport's decision-makers hold their nerve and push for further cost reductions

A select few leading engineers in the sport - such as Red Bull's chief technical officer Adrian Newey - also earn salaries of several million a year.

Raikkonen's Ferrari contract was extended in September until the end of 2010, despite the Finn's largely lacklustre season, but Domenicali said changing it was not impossible.

"Anything can be modified in life," he said. "The important thing is wanting to do it. We know the terms of the contract.

"However, I'm convinced this issue will soon be discussed among all the teams and with every driver."

His comments follow those made by fellow team boss Frank Williams, who said last week that he was in favour of a driver salary cap.

"We've raised this issue several times and will take the opportunity to do so again," Williams told British newspapers.

"We'd also strongly support a budget cap, introduced gradually, if it could be properly policed."


Hamilton, Raikkonen and Alonso are F1's highest-paid drivers
Williams dominated F1 in the 1980s and 1990s, but has seen his team's competitiveness slip in the last decade.

And he admitted that enforcing limits on the salaries of top drivers would be very difficult.

"If McLaren don't want to pay Hamilton £15m, someone else will. How do we stop that?" he said.

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo insisted he would not swap the English 2008 world champion for Felipe Massa, who lost the title to Hamilton by a single point.

"Hamilton is a great driver," Di Montezemolo said at Ferrari's HQ in Maranello. "But, with all respect, I wouldn't swap him for Felipe Massa.

"Felipe is extremely popular, for the man he is, for the great driver he's demonstrated to be, and for the beautiful way he lost the championship.

"If Massa did not win it this year it was because we (the team) were to blame.

"It would have been normal for him to win. He didn't manage to because of our mistakes."

Meanwhile, on a visit to the American headquarters of team sponsor Mobil, Hamilton concedes the new raft of regulations for 2009 could affect his title defence.

"With the new regulations it's going to make it very tough to win the championship again," the 23-year-old said.

"But I think as a team we are in a position to pull together and make a difference in some other way

Formula One teams appear to be on a collision course with Bernie Ecclestone over the way he runs the sport.

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo - who chairs the teams' association Fota - said he was unhappy with many of the ways in which Ecclestone operated.

Di Montezemolo believes the sport does not need a "dictator", adding the time was approaching when Ecclestone, 78, would have to step down.

"I think sooner or later he has to stop," Di Montezemolo told the Times.

Last week the Fota and the sport's governing body, the FIA, agreed a raft of compromises to cut costs over the next two seasons.

Di Montezemolo now wants the teams to use their unified stance to alter the balance of power in F1, which he believes is not being run in a "normal" fashion.

"Do you think it is normal that we don't have one race in North America?" he continued.

"Do you think it is normal we understand from newspapers that the Canadian Grand Prix is over?

"Do you think it is normal that we cannot discuss the timing of races?"

Di Montezemolo has already insisted on another meeting between Fota and the FIA to discuss the teams' earnings.

Under the current agreement, the sport's income is split 50-50 between the commercial rights holders - private equity group CVC Capital Partners - and all the teams.

"We want to know more about the revenues," said Di Montezemolo.

"There is no professional sport in the world where the players get less than 50% of the total cake.

"We have to open an important page with Ecclestone and [CVC boss Donald] MacKenzie, not only in terms of quantity of money but in terms of how to do things - circuits, spectators, hospitality, television, types of track and timing of races."

All the extra money Ferrari gets, Di Montezemolo should share all that amongst the teams

Bernie Ecclestone
But Ecclestone hit back at Ferrari president Di Montezemolo by revealing how Ferrari receive a disproportionate share of F1's income.

"Ferrari get so much more money than everyone else," he told The Times.

"The only thing he has not mentioned is the extra money Ferrari get above all the other teams and all the extra things Ferrari have had for years.

"They get about $80m (£54m) more. When they win the constructors' championship, which they did this year, they got $80m more than if McLaren had won it."

The Italian marque has a special place in the sport as it is the only team to have competed since the first championship in 1950.

But Ecclestone revealed Ferrari earned further favour when they broke ranks with the other teams over plans for a rival breakaway series in 2003.

"They were the only team that broke ranks with the other manufacturers - why did they break ranks?" he said. "That's where the $80m comes in.

"What he (Di Montezemolo) should do, rather than asking for money, with all the extra money Ferrari gets, he should share all that amongst the teams."

Di Montezemolo also said there would have been an exodus of the teams backed by major motor manufacturers if the FIA's plans to introduce a standard engine had been approved last week. MATT SLATER BLOG
The downturn could be the saving of F1: less really could be more if the sport's decision-makers hold their nerve and push for further cost reductions


Instead, Fota and the FIA agreed a different package of changes, including plans to double engine life in 2009, to limit the revs and to cut the cost of engines supplied to independent teams by approximately 50% of 2008 prices.

"If the standard engine had gone through for all teams, at least four or five carmakers would have abandoned (F1)," Di Montezemolo said.

"I mean four or five plus Ferrari - that is all of them."

Di Montezemolo also accused FIA president Max Mosley of undervaluing and misrepresenting Ferrari's response to his standard-engine plan.

"Mosley said our board was full of people not well informed," he told the Guardian.

"Well there is on our board the vice-chairman of the FIA, Marco Piccinini, a member of the [FIA] world council, [former Ferrari team boss] Jean Todt, Mr Piero Ferrari [son of Ferrari founder Enzo Ferrari] and myself.

"So I don't think that is an ill-informed board. If Mosley thinks so, then he is ill-informed."

Five weeks after departing the scene as an F1 team owner, Gerhard Berger has issued a bleak assessment about the economic health of the sport.

The former 50 percent owner of Red Bull's second team Toro Rosso told the Swiss newspaper SonntagsBlick that he remains passionate about the sport.

"I had to see Formula One as a business, and I do not want a business in an environment that is unhealthy," he said.

"F1 is being affected not only by the global financial crisis: our sport's crisis is also home-made."

Berger explained that he 'cannot afford' to run a team, and insists that Red Bull also wants to have full ownership so it has a 'free hand' in the running of its teams.

However, he also said at the Austrian ski resort at Kitzbuhel: "What is being done now with budgets of $300 million per year can also be done with 30 million, when reason returns.
"

Berger said that F1 emerging from the current situation is going to require "a lot of Bernie Ecclestone's skill."

"Formula one has moved onto thin ice," Berger insists. "The organisers of the traditional tracks can't afford it any more. The high costs mean that it can't any more be covered by the normal sponsors."

"With F1 at this level, the manufacturers will only keep on a friendly face for so long."

He thinks he headed for the exit at 'the right time'.

"And for 2009," Berger added, "Toro Rosso will have a good and fast driver in Buemi."

:o :o :o


Fernando Alonso turned down an opportunity to switch immediately to Ferrari out of loyalty to his current F1 employer Renault.

That is the claim of a Spanish newspaper, following reports from Italy that the former champion has now penned a deal to race with the famous Maranello-based team in 2011.

Diario AS said Ferrari were prepared to replace Kimi Raikkonen but Alonso put a stop to the deal because it would have left Renault in the lurch less than three months from the start of the 2009 season.


"In short, the Italian team's sudden interest came too late for Fernando," AS said.

Ferrari has announced that its 2009 contender, the F2009, will hit the track next Monday.

The unveiling of the new Ferrari is scheduled to take place at the Italian team's Maranello headquarters, with Felipe Massa to debut the car later the same day at Fiorano.

Ferrari clarified that the car will not yet be in its race-legal 2009 specification.

The Italian squad will therefore become the first team to run its 2009 contender in anger, albeit in interim form.

Honda team boss Ross Brawn has confirmed he is in talks with his former employer Ferrari about securing a customer engine supply for 2009.

The Briton told La Gazzetta dello Sport that he and colleague Nick Fry are also speaking with multiple potential buyers of the Brackley-based team.

"Honda has already said it will not supply us with engines, so that's why I contacted Ferrari," said Brawn, who was the Maranello team's technical director until 2006.

"We haven't signed anything yet but I really appreciated the support from President Luca di Montezemolo and Stefano Domenicali. It's like being among former schoolmates: they still see me as one of their own."

Brawn said his priority is to safeguard the jobs of Honda Racing F1's staff, rather than protecting his own position or selling to the highest bidder.

When asked how many parties the team is speaking to, he answered: "I can only say it's more than one. The objective is to save the jobs (...) my presence is certainly not a priority.
"

He said the team was unlikely to return to the test tracks prior to the start of the season, but that he is "really optimistic" about the chances of survival.

"There's no hurry because modifying the car to install a different engine requires at least six weeks of work anyway. It's unlikely we'll manage to be on track during the winter."

"That's why we are studying a package of evolutions for 2010, when we aim to step up the ladder. Next year will remain for us a transitional one," Brawn said.