08/11/2004
NEWS STORY
All the team principals - with the exception of Ferrari - will meet in London on Tuesday (Nov 9), to discuss the cost reduction proposals put forward in Brazil last month.
At that time, the team principals for nine of the ten teams signed up to the initiative, led by Minardi boss Paul Stoddart, however Ferrari refused to sign up, claiming that the proposals were not sensible and were unworkable.
The fact that nine of the teams agreed on anything caught everyone by surprise, whereas Ferraris refusal to sign the proposal was immediately seen as a deliberate attempt to 'throw a spanner in the works'.
The nine teams called for a drastic reduction to the amount of testing carried out once the season is underway, however it isn't simply the testing restrictions that Ferrari boss Jean Todt is against.
Stoddart has said that he is hopeful of finding a solution, and claims that the meeting will go ahead, despite Ferrari's decision not to attend.
One of the wackier media spin-offs following Ferrari's decision not to agree to the original proposals, was that the Italian team found itself accused of being responsible should Britain and France be omitted from the F1 calendar in 2005, which of course took the heat off Bernie Ecclestone, the man responsible for scheduling the world championship venues.