Max Mosley, during his tenure as president of the FIA, offered many different ideas - some are quite realistic, others are fantastic. This time, he proposed his own cost-cutting scheme.
Of course, as Mosley told Auto Motor und Sport, a Formula 2 season in 1968 cost him £ 5,000. And now a child who wants to go in for motorsport will do little if he does not have a billionaire father or he does not participate in the youth program of Mercedes, Red Bull or Ferrari.
Mosley believes that it is necessary to start limiting costs right away with karting, because the higher the price for the season, the less talented riders come to "formulas". However, this is difficult, since everyone is used to making money even in children's karting - cars, spare parts, engines cost a lot, and even some organizers start weekends on Thursday.
In Formula 1, it has long been impossible to create a completely independent team - except to go the way of Haas, which buys parts from Ferrari. But Mosley has a fair distribution plan that would suit everyone.
“If I were a dictator - as I have never been in my time - I would suggest the following, - said the Briton. - Let's take the FOM money and distribute it in equal parts to ten, or rather, to twelve teams. Only $ 60 million per team is just an example. And a separate team can spend this amount per season - on everything, including pilots' salaries. Sponsored funds are the profits of the teams. This would mean that Ferrari would be extremely profitable.
It would also be an excellent system for car builders. Are they successful just because they spend more money than others? We need them to say: our engineers are better than others.
Yes, this is the amount I named for an example. I think that the amount to be distributed will be larger. But for now, let's take 60 million as a basis. This is a hell of a lot of money, a dozen times more than it takes in Formula 2 to have and maintain two cars. You can paint the F2 cars in the colors of the F1 teams, and no one will see the difference in the stands or on the TV screen.
Big money is spent behind the scenes. No one sees how teams build their gearboxes and how much effort it takes. This has zero impact on what spectators see on the track.
However, teams are always against change - they just don't want to change anything. Big teams are reluctant to give up their advantages over small teams and are unlikely to agree to budget constraints.
Well, yes, how do you control costs? How do you know if a team in China is not working in a secret wind tunnel or is testing on a track that no one knows about?
In 2008, we created a complete plan for controlling costs - there was no reason to doubt that this was possible. However, the scandalous story with the publication in the News of the World tied my hands. I found myself in a position where there was nothing I could do. And the introduction of budget restrictions fell through."
However, that plan has not disappeared, it still exists and, according to Max Mosley, could become a model for Liberty, if the new owners want to ensure the implementation of such a plan.
