27/10/2014
NEWS STORY
As two teams look likely to go to the wall, former FIA president Max Mosley warns that more could follow.
Whilst many were highly critical of the Briton during his time as FIA president, especially of his close relationship with Bernie Ecclestone, there is no doubting the positive things he did for the sport, mainly in terms of safety.
However, the Briton, who had run his own F1 team during the early 70s, was also behind moves to limit spending in the sport, fearing that escalating costs due to the competitiveness of the leading teams would ultimately drive out smaller teams and in time destroy the sport.
It was Mosley who pushed for the budget cap that was to see three new teams enter the sport in 2010, a budget cap that was subsequently vetoed and would lead to all three teams going under.
Today, as Marussia followed Caterham by going in to administration, Mosley warned that unless the sport heeds the warnings more will follow.
"It's not a fair competition any more," he told BBC Radio 5 Live. "The big problem is that the big teams have so much more money than teams like Caterham and Marussia. In the end, they were bound to drop off... and they may not be the last.
"From a sporting point of view, the sport should split the money equally and then let the teams get as much sponsorship as they can," he suggested. "A team like Ferrari will always get more sponsorship than Marussia, but if they all get the same basic money, then they all start on a level-playing field, particularly if you have a cost cap where you limit the amount of money each team is allowed to spend."
Like many, Mosley cites the costs incurred as the sport changed to a new, more environmentally friendly, formula this year.
"I'm in favour of the greener engines," he said. "The mistake was not saying to the big manufacturers that you can spend as much as you want on research but the maximum you can charge per season is something like £3m to £4m instead of the £15m to £20m, which I believe it is now."
As the sport faces its smallest grid (18 cars) since Monaco 2005 (pictured), when BAR was serving a two-race ban for running underweight cars, Mosley is not in favour of the idea of third cars.
"You should have 10-12 two-car teams and the rules should be arranged so that if someone is a really good engineer starting at the back, they can work their way up to the front," he said.