'It had become apparent long before the present economic difficulties that Formula One is unsustainable. If we can't get this sorted out by 2010 we will be in serious difficulty. We can survive through 2009, but I'm not to sure about after', explained Mosley yesterday.
The high costs of creating your own F1 team and sustaining it throughout an entire season made its first victim after the 2008 Spanish Grand Prix when Super Aguri were forced to cancel all their plans for 2008 due to lack of funds. It was the 'Chronicle of a Death Foretold' all the way for the Japanese team, since they started the season with an incredibly low budget: £25 million (only a decent engine costs around £15 million in F1 nowadays).
At this moment, Toyota spends the biggest amount of cash to sustain their F1 efforts, around £255.6 a year. McLaren, Ferrari, Honda, Renault and BMW follow the Japanese manufacturer in the budget standings, all surpassing £210 million. Private teams like Red Bull, Toro Rosso, Williams or Force India spend between £70 - £90 million a season.
'I think it would put the sport in an unsustainable position if we lost two more teams. At the moment we have 20 cars competing and if we lost two teams we'd have 16 and then it would cease to be a credible grid', insisted Mosley. To avoid a bigger gap between manufacturer and private teams, FIA is considering reducing costs for car components, engine, gearbox and even tires.
'The most obvious measure would be to reduce the cost of the car. The engine and gearbox costs about £25million a year and that could be done for probably five percent of that cost without anyone in the grandstand noticing at all. We have various means of making sure the big spenders don't spend so much, but that would mean some draconian measures', ended Mosley.
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