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Ecclestone Not Panicking on F1 Future

Taking on former F1 champion Alain Prost's advice, Bernie Ecclestone insisted that the world of Formula 1 should not panic in the wake of the global economic downturn. The F1 supreme argued that everyone should stay calm and not take any rushed decision, especially since no one really knows how this whole thing is going to turn out in the end.

“We have many sponsors and we believe that the other teams will continue. The situation affects everyone and everyone is going to suffer. Nobody knows how it is going to turn out so we should probably all be patient,” said Ecclestone in an interview for Spanish sports newspaper As.

Until now, Honda was the only manufacturer to pull out of the sport. However, shortly after the Japanese car maker decided to pull the plug on their F1 operations, the International Automobile Federation introduced a new set of rules aimed to reduce costs inside the sport by more than 30 % in 2009 only. It is believed that the funding for keeping an F1 team alive in 2010 will further decrease to less than 50% of what it was needed a year ago.

Nevertheless, there are a number of sponsors who have decided to either withdraw from Formula One or revise their sponsorship deals ahead of the new season. Renault's primary backer ING Group revealed that they will reconsider their position in F1 by mid-season.

The other day, it was Alain Prost to advice F1 owners to take on a less-panicking approach on the new season, especially since all teams are in the same boat ahead of 2009, having to work with less money.

“I prefer people who say 'let's think' rather than 'let's stop'. Honda aside, I don't think there is panic," he said in Paris. In F1, everyone is in the same boat with having to reduce budgets, and in the last ten years I had never seen F1 with such an abundance of resources,” Prost was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.
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