F1 Teams And Fia Fail To Reach Budget Cap Deal

Following a weekend of negotiations, the F1 teams and the world motorsport governing body the FIA have failed to reach a compromise deal over the proposed £40m budget cap for the 2010 season – a scenario that could lead to a number of teams including Ferrari withdrawing from the sport.

The teams met FIA president Max Mosley and F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone over the plan to introduce an optional £40m cap but have failed to convince the sport’s hierarchy to change their minds on the proposition.

Mosley insisted there would still be ‘no compromise’ on the cap, though it was at least agreed the idea of a two-tier championship was not acceptable.

Ferrari, meanwhile, have filed an injunction to block the proposed budget cap. The Italian giants, the longest-running team in F1, joined Toyota, Red Bull and Renault in threatening to pull out of the sport if the regulation changes were enforced.

The FIA want an optional £40m budget cap in order to encourage new teams to enter, with those teams operating under the budget allowed far greater technical freedom than those continuing with unlimited funds.

Mosley revealed that Ferrari had filed an injunction with a French court in a bid to prevent the cap being enforced – a sign, said the FIA chief, that they do not want to go through with their threat to quit the sport.

Mosley, who described the meeting as friendly, also stated that the 29th May deadline, though still in place, could potentially prove flexible as teams need not determine their participation until later in the summer if – as expected – F1 fails to fill all the places on the grid by the end of this month.

‘We had an interesting meeting and exchange of views but nothing concrete has come out of it. I think there will be further developments. The teams have gone off to see if they can come up with something better than the cost cap and we will be happy to listen to what they have to say.

‘But what we have said to them is that it’s really not possible, if you are going to dramatically reduce the costs, to do anything better than a cost cut. We think that when they think about it when they consider it properly they will come back and agree.’

F1 supremo Ecclestone, speaking after the meeting, said: ‘I think the most important thing that upset everybody is the two-tier technical system, and I think it’s been agreed that we shouldn’t have that, we should just have one set of regulations.

‘I think everybody is more or less happy with the budget cap, it’s just a case of how much. I don’t know if that means it will be higher or lower, it’s a case of sorting that out.’

The move to enforce the budget cap has been led by Mosley as one of a number of structural changes designed to help F1 through the economic recession.