13/12/2008
NEWS STORY
FIA President Max Mosley is confident that the package of new rules announced yesterday in an attempt to reduce team spending by at least a third in 2009 is the way forward.
"I think this is probably the first step towards Formula One saving itself, because everybody recognised the situation had become very serious and that something needed to be done," he told reporters at a press conference following the unveiling of the World Motor Sport council's decision. "We're now going to become much more cost-effective."
For some time now, long before manufacturing giants like Honda ran into trouble, Mosley has been arguing that costs need to be drastically reduced, even though, as he admitted earlier this week, in some cases new rules introduced by the FIA had led teams to spending more money, something fans have been pointing out for some time.
While many purists are alarmed at what they perceive as further dumbing down of the sport, Mosley insists that the effect of the new rules will hardly be noticed by the general public, only by the teams accounts departments.
"What's significant about these changes is when you walk down the pit lane, or you sit in the grandstand or watch television, you will notice no difference at all," he said. "It will be Formula One as we all know it but clearly much less expensive."
However, other than the purists, the others who will notice the new rules are the many employees who will be laid-off as in-season testing is banned, along with the reduction of personnel in various other departments as the sport tightens its belt.
"Inevitably, in any industry, if you reduce the costs then you reduce the number of people," admitted Mosley. "But if you see it from the other point of view, they currently employ between 700 and 1,000 people just to put two cars on the grid. In any event that is not sustainable."