Mosley: Formula 1 Could Survive Without Ferrari!

FIA president Max Mosley made it very clear that the international body will not renounce their newly-confirmed budget cap for 2010 on the wishes of Formula One’s “big guns” Ferrari. Following the Scuderia’s threat to reconsider their position inside the sport as a result of the 40M (pounds sterling) cap set up for the upcoming season, Mosley argued F1 could go on just as well without the Italian manufacturer.

Ferrari are the only team who have been competing in Formula 1 since the very formation of the championship – back in 1950. However, despite their good relationship with the FIA in recent years, Mosley sees no reason why F1 will not survive without its most faithful competitor.

“It would be very, very sad to lose Ferrari. It is the Italian national team. But the sport could survive without Ferrari,” said Mosley in an interview for British newspaper Financial Times.

Furthermore, the 78-year old expressed his hopes that the championship manufacturers will see the point in spending an estimated 40M as compared to 100M for their F1 operations. However, even if some car makers will not agree with the new budget cap, this will not stand in the way of his plan to safeguard the sport long-term.

“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 (pounds sterling) 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?’”

“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 (euro), you can consider this a pretty permanent arrangement,’” concluded Mosley.