Webber Slams Budget Caps, Thinks New Rules Are Pointless

Mark Webber said he is not very confident the voluntary budget caps – ratified by the World Motor Sport Council earlier this week – will likely it into the 2010 F1 regulations under its present form.

The new rules state that, in 2010, all teams will be offered the chance to submit to a £30 million budget cap in exchange of total technical freedom. However, the teams not restricting their yearly budgets to the aforementioned sum – most likely the works teams for championship's manufacturers – will not benefit from the same technical aid.

“It's like saying Coventry can play with 30 players against Manchester United with 11. Or in tennis, we'll lower the net for you because you don't have as good a racket, and we'll put it back up again for the other guy. I'm not too bothered about it because I think it will change,” commented Webber, in an interview for BBC.

He also insisted that the new changes have led to a very chaotic rule book – and he didn't even refer to the much-discusses title awarding system. In Webber's view, all teams should guide their development after the same set of rules, otherwise F1 will cease to be a competitive series.

“Sometimes it's hard to see where we are going (in F1). Rewarding yourself for doing well is about knowing other people have had the same opportunity to do well and you've done a better job than them,” added the Australia.

Talking about the controversial new system on which the 2009 world champion will be chosen – based on wins, rather than points – Webber joined the pack of drivers slamming the idea as being totally pointless and ridiculous.

“I can see why they're trying to do it like that so there could be some guys who might not sit in so much and to start going for wins, especially when it's down to two or three guys. Everyone's trying to win, that's clear, but the difference between a win and second now is huge, much bigger than in the past.”

“There could be a fraction more aggression shown towards victories in the future because second places won't mean as much, and winning will mean a lot more. Robert Kubica would have been nowhere near the championship last year, and do you want that? (Also) you could have the world champion making more mistakes than the guy who is second,” concluded the Red Bull driver.