Stewart Attacks Mosley on Budget Cap Proposal

Three time world champion Jackie Stewart did not wait long until issuing another attack on FIA president Max Mosley. The legendary Scottish driver, known to be a constant opponent of the 78-year old Englishman, slammed the latter's plans to introduce the controversial budget caps in Formula One.

Stewart argued it would be nonsense to tell championship big guns how much they are allowed to spend, as they have proven, as worldwide companies, that they know how to handle their business in times of economic recession such as these.

“These are private enterprise companies that are run to make profit by building cars. The FIA simply take money, they don't make money without the teams and yet they want to tell BMW, Ferrari, Renault, Toyota, Mercedes - these huge successful companies - how much they can afford in F1,” said Stewart in an interview with The Daily Express.

So far, Mercedes are the only car maker not threatening the FIA with leaving the sport, as Ferrari, Renault, Toyota and BMW (although the German manufacturer is yet to officially announce it) have all issued quit threats during the past week. In addition, Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz also confirmed he would not align his team(s) at the start of next year's championship if FIA did not revise their two-tier regulations.

Despite those quit threats, Stewart believes the controversy around the new regulations will not decimate the series.

“Formula one is not under threat from the teams. The sport is huge and it will continue no matter what. It doesn't need being told what to do,” added the 69-year old Scotsman.