Cost cuts for Formula One

Formula One bosses have apparently reached a deal to cut costs for smaller teams from next season.

FIA president Max Mosley and Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo say the agreement will produce a significant cost saving, but no further details have been officially provided. Former Benetton F-1 marketing boss Brian Sims still has contacts in F-1 however, and he told us that the main issues discussed were around the engines -



Four major points were apparently agreed at the meeting, the first of which effected engine life. This season the teams have run two races with each engine, and a changed engine during those races results in a driver penalty of 10 grid places.

Next season, that is likely to change to 3 races. The 2nd point involves the engine manufacturers that supply the so called 'customer-teams'. In F-1, the top teams are provided engines by companies such as Ferrari and Mercedes, whereas the smaller ! operations such as Force India F-1 team are required to pay for their engines. This cost is around 30 million Euros. There is talk about the manufacturers having to supply about 10 million Euro of that cost next season.

The other points of discussion were around the KERS or 'Kinetic Energy Recovery System', which is an eviromentally linked programme that will be introduced.

The group have agreed to have a further meeting to discuss chassis development and a further reduction in the amount of testing milage permitted.