Bernie Ecclestone has confirmed that there is at least agreement between the FIA and the teams to scrap plans for a two-tier system in 2010, if not the more fundamental proposal of a budget cap.
The FIA has faced mounting pressure this week to back down over its plans for a £40 million budget cap in 2010 with several leading teams, including Ferrari, threatening to quit the sport.
The teams say the cap, which would grant greater technical freedom to those teams who restrict their spending, would damage the sport by creating a two-tier system.
A meeting between the FIA and the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) on Friday ended in stalemate, but Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone has revealed that agreement has been reached to have a single set of regulations in 2010.
“I think the most important thing that upset everybody, they didn’t like, was this two-tier technical system, so I think it has been agreed that we shouldn’t have that. We should have just one set of regulations,” he told the BBC.
“I think everybody is more or less happy with the budget cap. Just how much. They’ll go with it higher [than £40 million], maybe it’ll be lower. It’s a case of just sorting it out. Everyone will be under the same regulations.”
However, this does raise the question of whether the two-tier system was merely a ruse allowing the FIA to be seen to compromise and get the teams to sign up to the far more significant proposal of a budget cap.
