FIA Seeks To Slash F1 Team Budgets For 2010

The British-based team have yet to announce any deal, with time running out and the new season due to start in Australia on March 29.

Formula One's governing body has proposed further cost cutting measures that would allow teams to compete in 2010 on less than a quarter of the amount some were spending last season.

"Our target would be to get the cost (of competing) down to 50 million euros ($65.17 million) for everyone, including the manufacturer teams," an International Automobile Federation (FIA) spokesman said on Wednesday.

A detailed "Cost Containment Policy - White Paper' document was sent to teams in December containing extensive proposals that go well beyond what has already been agreed in the face of the global financial crisis.

The measures outlined aimed to make it possible for a team to be competitive enough to win the title on a budget of 50 million euros while giving minimal advantage to any rival spending more than 100 million.

The 50 million euro target would be tiny compared to most current team budgets, with some manufacturers such as now-departed Honda estimated to have spent more than $300 million last season.

Honda announced in December they were pulling out of Formula One, leaving the sport with nine teams if no purchaser can be found at a time when sponsors and manufacturers are suffering from the global slowdown.

The British-based team have yet to announce any deal, with time running out and the new season due to start in Australia on March 29.

NON-COMPETE

The FIA and the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) have already agreed a package of cost-cutting measures for 2009, focusing on longer-lasting engines, limits on aerodynamic development and a ban on testing during the season.

FOTA has also said independent teams can count on a five million euro engine supply from 2010 with the gearbox, due to last for six races, costing a further 1.5 million euros per season.

Such an engine/gearbox package would have cost in the region of 20-30 million euros in 2007.

The white paper, drawn up by former Jaguar team boss Tony Purnell, called for "defined areas of technical competition" between teams with other areas defined as 'non-compete', where parts could be standardised.

Those manufacturers who wanted to develop their own technology in areas of allowed competition would also have to make it available to others at a capped price in the same way that engines were available to independent teams.

FOTA, which met in London on Tuesday, has agreed to work on further cost reductions but is keen to maintain competition and innovation.

"I just hope we continue to retain the DNA of Formula One, something that makes Formula One unique and very special," Toyota motorsport president John Howett told Reuters last month.

"If that is compromised purely on the basis of short-term cost vision, then I don't believe that any manufacturer will remain in the sport."