Sceptics have warned that the budget cap system which the FIA are hoping to bring into Formula 1 in 2009 is unenforceable however FIA president Max Mosley disagrees and believes that budget caps are easily achievable for the sport.
“I think for a long time the feeling was with the big manufacturers that costs doesn t really matter, that they don t care,†Mosley explained. “Now everybody understands that they do care and in fact it became of big importance to them. The teams at the last meeting were strongly in favour – or almost all of them were strongly in favour – of a cost cap rather then specific regulations.
“With the cost cap, the amount of money is limited, but you can spend it any way you want, whereas if we start saying this is for the use of the wind tunnel or the computer, one team has a big wind tunnel, the other has got a big computer, so you end up getting everybody unhappy. But obviously the problem with the cost cap is we have got to agree how we are going to enforce it, how are we going to check – and what the figure should be.
“I am very convinced that we are able to do it, but people are still sceptical, saying: ‘how will you know for sure they haven’t had something given to them?’ The answer is we’ve got some very good plans for that. It will all be discussed in the next few months.”
As yet, there is no news on what the budget cap level will be. Mosley would not be drawn on the subject, stating that further discussions were needed with the team bosses before a budget cap could be set.
“We have to listen to what the teams all say,” he continued. “Clearly in an ideal situation you would have a figure where a mid-field team could run at a profit, because if you take an independent team they had better make a profit or they don’t stay in business. That has to be discussed and I would guess that it takes two to three years to get to the figure. You definitely could not do it suddenly.”
