FIA to Discuss New Cost-Cutting Proposals in Brazil

The International Automobile Federation will meet with FOTA representatives shortly after the Brazilian Grand Prix to further discuss plans for cutting costs inside Formula One for the upcoming seasons. Most of the championship's 'big guns' expressed optimistic feelings before the meeting in Brazil, insisting however that standard engines will not be an acceptable proposal for the future of the sport.

“To us, there is an English word that I don't really like which is 'commodity'. And some people nowadays talk about the engine being a commodity, and that is absolutely not our understanding. The engine is not just any part of the car, it is the heart of the car and we want to see a BMW engine in our F1 car,” admitted BMW's motorsport director Mario Theissen to autosport.com.

Following quit threats from both Ferrari or Toyota (mostly coming from the Scuderia) should standard engines become a part of the sport starting 2010, FIA are likely to look for a compromise on the matter, especially since BMW, Honda and McLaren are also officially against the implementation of such a rule.

“The standard engine is something that we do not support. I can understand if you are an independent team it has an immediate attraction, but I think there was a good compromise put forward by all of the teams, by FOTA, which will significantly reduce engine costs for the independent teams next year. Thereafter it will be scaled down again. There are some good initiatives and people are working together to improve the sport,” stated McLaren's CEO Martin Whitmarsh.

Following the latest meeting between Max Mosley and team's representatives at Geneva last week – Ferrari's Luca di Montezemolo and Toyota's John Howett – it was already settled that a team should use a maximum 25 engine units per season and that engine pricing inside the F1 paddock will decrease to 5 million Euros. In order for that to happen, FIA should change the concept of an F1 powerplant as it would be almost impossible to reach that level of pricing for the existing engines.

“I am an optimist. Every year brings new challenges, and within the sport at the moment there is some realistic and sensible discussion about the governance and the way we have to work together in the sport. Clearly all the teams, the FIA and FOM (Formula One Management) have to work together to make sure that the small teams survive, and that they have a chance to be competitive as well. There were some good discussions in Shanghai and I am sure there will be some good discussions here this weekend,” concluded Whitmarsh.