It is possible formula one teams will be limited to a budget cap in 2013, according to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

The budget cap idea saw the sport almost implode amid the bitter political war of 2009, when proposed by controversial former FIA president Max Mosley.

But it is back on the agenda in 2012, and according to new rules – where a majority of teams can now push through a change – it could be imposed next season.

“Ten of the 12 teams are in favour,” Auto Motor und Sport said, referring to the push to have cost-cutting moved from the FOTA gentleman’s agreement to the actual sporting regulations.

It means that the two dissenting teams, the Red Bull-owned Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso, will have no say.

“The cost to be competitive in formula one at present is too high,” the boss of the energy drink company’s premier team, Christian Horner, said recently. “I don’t think anybody will dispute that.

“The debate is how we achieve it.”

Not only that, the German report said nine teams are in favour of Mosley’s old budget cap idea, with annual expenditure limited initially to EUR 170 million and then diminishing to 100 million over a few seasons.

Sauber is in a race for money after discovering its 2012 car is up to speed with F1′s richest teams.

As ever in formula one, world championships are won not on the basis of a clever initial design, but on a team’s ability to continue to develop it throughout a long season.

According to O Estado de S.Paulo newspaper, the formerly BMW-owned Sauber team’s chief executive Monisha Kaltenborn admits that the Hinwil based outfit cannot compete on that front with the likes of McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull.

“It’s a shame,” she is quoted as saying.

“I hope we can show enough potential so that some companies decide to invest in our project,” said Kaltenborn, with the Brazilian newspaper estimating that Sauber’s budget is EUR 80 million this year.

In contrast, the top four teams’ budgets are believed to be all above EUR 220m.

Kaltenborn told F1′s official website recently that Sauber would back a push to impose a budget cap — an issue that triggered the big teams’ bitter political war with former FIA president Max Mosley a few years ago.

“We … have also openly said that we are not satisfied with our sponsor situation because we have high targets and to achieve them you need appropriate funding,” she continued.

“We still need to work on that side of things, as of course the more funding you have the more you can develop — and it shows on the track.

“I have said before that when we look back we practically never had enough money to do what we really wanted to. The question is always how big the gap is — sometimes it is bigger, sometimes it is smaller.”

Martin Brundle has admitted he is surprised HRT is still struggling so much at the start of its third season in formula one.

Better known then as ‘Hispania’, the Spanish team was founded by Adrian Campos after former FIA president Max Mosley opened up three new places in pitlane for the start of the 2010 season.

But last year, the team’s second group of owners – the Carabante family – passed the baton yet again to Thesan Capital, who have rebuilt HRT in the wake of the management and infrastructure that was brought by former boss Colin Kolles.

Even so, the highly respected British commentator and former grand prix veteran Martin Brundle is surprised that Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan are struggling so much with the team’s Cosworth-powered 2012 car.

“Somebody’s got to be at the front, somebody’s got to be at the back,” the Briton told the BBC motoring programme Top Gear’s website.

“(But) the HRT is particularly poor at the moment, and it confuses me why in year three it’s worse than it was in year one.”

Carlos Gracia, an FIA vice-president and head of Spain’s motor racing federation, doesn’t fully agree.

Speaking to the sports newspaper Marca, he explained that veteran de la Rosa faces a “handicap” as the Spaniard races with HRT this year.

“He knows where he is; in a brand new team, although some people believe it is their third year.

“They have begun again, but it seems that they are in a situation where they have only just started and yet they have to clean up the image of the other years.

“That’s his handicap, but the team will have credibility because of Pedro and also because of a good business investment,” added Gracia.

 Dan Wheldon’s death could have sped up efforts to end the long era of open-cockpit racing.
F1′s governing body earlier this year, in response to the F1 and F2 incidents in 2009 involving Felipe Massa and Henry Surtees, tested screens and fighter jet-style canopies for possible use in the future.

Now, days after Briton Wheldon was killed when his Indycar overturned and struck catch-fencing in Las Vegas, former FIA president Max Mosley said of the canopy idea: “I think it could work.

“You’re always in danger, in an open cockpit, of objects striking the driver. It (the canopy) might also help if it’s reinforced with another roll bar, in things like the Dan Wheldon accident,” he told CNN.

“But that’s something that needs careful investigation.”

Mosley admitted that an unwanted side-effect of a cockpit canopy would be its aerodynamic effect.

“One of the troubles is that it would probably make the car quicker, which is just what we don’t want. But there are other means of slowing them down,” he said.

Yet more problems are that dirty canopies will affect driver visibility, while in severe accidents the cover might prevent marshals and doctors from extricating injured drivers.

“All of that will be looked at by a technical working group if it turns out the thing would protect the driver better,” insisted Mosley.

“What I do know is we’ve got some very clever people, looking full-time at these problems.”

F1′s governing body on Wednesday published a re-jigged final calendar for the 2012 season.

The unprecedented 20-race schedule begins with back-to-back races in Australia and Malaysia, with the next two grands prix also taking place on consecutive weekends.

The final leg of the opening ‘flyaway’ season is Bahrain in late April, despite earlier provisional calendars giving the island Kingdom either a March or November date.

Former FIA president Max Mosley said there should still be some uncertainty about Bahrain’s return to F1.

“I would monitor the situation and set them a deadline, say the first of March next year.

“It would be rude to shut them out forever, but they do need to completely prove that the situation has calmed down,” he told Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

The latest 2012 calendar confirms the axe of the Turkish grand prix in Istanbul, and sees India receive a late October date once again despite recent speculation of a move to earlier in the schedule.

The final calendar, ratified by fax by the World Motor Sport Council, features no fewer than seven back-to-back pairings in total.

These include arduous consecutive events in China/Brazil, Japan/Korea, India/Abu Dhabi and the US/Brazil.

The FIA will have broken its own rules if the Bahrain grand prix goes ahead in October without the teams’ consent.
That is the claim of the governing body’s former president Max Mosley, as the intrigue surrounding the rescheduled race in the troubled island Kingdom deepens this week.

Last Friday, the FIA – now led by Jean Todt – stunned the F1 world by announcing October 30 as the new date for the 2011 Bahrain grand prix, shunting India to an unprecedentedly-late December 11 season finale.

But Mosley told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme on Tuesday that he thinks there is not “the slightest chance” the change will ultimately stick.

Indeed, Bernie Ecclestone is now pushing for a new vote of the World Motor Sport Council, while the F1 teams FOTA group is understood to have written a letter to the sport’s authorities asking for the same.

Mosley, also opposed to Bahrain on political grounds, said: “Apart from anything else you cannot change the calendar in the way it has been proposed without the unanimous agreement of the teams.

“So until written agreement of the teams is forthcoming, you can’t actually change the date. It can’t be done,” he said.

The Bahrain International Circuit and the FIA have confirmed reports the troubled island Kingdom’s postponed race date has been rescheduled for 2011.
Although the governing body is yet to issue a statement to the wider media, sources said the FIA is now confirming October 30 for the Bahrain grand prix.

That means India will need to move its inaugural race, but the precise date is yet to be decided, with teams most unhappy at the prospect of prolonging mechanics’ holidays until mid December.

“On behalf of Bahrain, I would like to thank Bernie Ecclestone, Jean Todt and the FIA and the rest of the motor sport community for the support and understanding they have extended to us this year,” said Bahrain circuit head Zayed R Alzayani.

Earlier, former FIA president Max Mosley said there was no way he would reschedule Bahrain this year if he was in Todt’s shoes.

“Formula one would go to Bahrain over my dead body,” he is quoted by Arabian Business. “It cannot happen.”

Team boss Christian Horner has denied claims Red Bull flouted a cost-saving agreement on the way to winning the world championships in 2010.
On Christmas Eve, former FIA president Max Mosley claimed Red Bull spent more than was allowed under the Resource Restriction Agreement (RRA); a document agreed as a compromise to a full-blown budget cap.

On Monday, Italian reports claimed Red Bull’s over-spend was EUR 60 million, amid rumours Mercedes could be set to break the next agreement with its KERS development costs.

At the same time, F1′s smallest budget team HRT quit the FOTA teams association, a spokeswoman explaining that the body is “more for the big teams than the small ones”.

The Spanish news agency EFE speculated that HRT’s departure might be the start of a deeper FOTA split ahead of crucial commercial negotiations with Bernie Ecclestone.

Increasingly isolated is Red Bull, with media sources suggesting that because the team was allegedly over-budget by 60m in 2010, that amount should be deducted from its allowed spending this year.

The situation means Red Bull is currently refusing to sign a new RRA for 2011.

“We’ve worked in accordance with the RRA limits since they were introduced,” Horner told BBC Sport.

He linked the suspicions about Red Bull’s spending with earlier gripes about technical features of the title-winning RB6 car.

“Red Bull has committed its budgets wisely and it’s obviously surprising that people will feel that way, but it’s inevitable, I guess, when you’re at the front and winning races,” added Horner.

Virgin team CEO Graeme Lowden did not refer to Red Bull specifically, but he said that even a breach of the “spirit” of the RRA would be “extremely disappointing”.

Horner confirmed that Red Bull has not yet signed a new RRA.

“The (agreement) needs to be sorted quite quickly because at the moment it is unclear what rules we are working to in 2011 in many respects, so it’s important a solution is found and I think one will be found,” he said.

Red Bull might have broken the F1 teams’ cost saving agreement, according to former FIA president Max Mosley.

During an interview with Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, the 70-year-old said the Resource Restriction Agreement (RRA) has proved an ineffective substitute for his budget cap proposal that was the subject of a bitter dispute in 2009.

“The effect of this (RRA) agreement is minimal,” he said, “which is the reason the teams agreed to it.

“At the last FOTA meeting last Thursday,” Mosley revealed, “Red Bull asked for an exception.

“If that’s true, that can only mean they spent more than they were allowed, and now they’re asking for the (other) teams’ okay.

“I am interested to know how their opponents are going to react,” he added.

Mosley describes the RRA as a “sham”.

“I’ll give an example — the teams are limited to a certain number of employees, let’s say 100. If I walk through the paddock with a lot of money, then I get the best 100 people.

“So you still have no chance against the rich teams. The only thing that will work is a budget limit. A bigger budget is like having a bigger engine,” he insisted.

Mosley is especially scathing of Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo, who is critical of the small teams and pushing for more private testing and three car entries.

“On the one hand he complains that the new teams are too slow, and on the other hand he asks for something (more testing) that will widen the gap even more.

“The third car is complete nonsense, giving the big teams even more power, politically and sporting. It’s also against the spirit of F1 — it needs different blood.

“Without new teams, F1 would die. The problem with Luca is he has never had to build a team from nothing and doesn’t know how hard it is.

“F1 has a lot of problems but Luca only adds to them.”

However, Mosley said Ferrari was the only team that stayed “loyal” to him during the sex scandal, weakening his resolve to push on with the budget cap era.

“My plan was to go through with it with the other teams, with Ferrari threatening to withdraw. I would have chanced it because we all know they wouldn’t really have gone,” he said.

“But then came the affair with the (News of the World) newspaper. Ferrari was the only team that stayed loyal, so I couldn’t really do something like that to them.”

Mosley also said it is too early to judge his successor as FIA president, Jean Todt.

“This season was very good, but it is a time of transition. I think we’ll only be able to assess Jean Todt in another year,” he added.

Luca di Montezemolo thinks formula one could survive without its famous name.

The sport’s chief executive Bernie Ecclestone dismissed as “complete nonsense” the Ferrari president’s latest threat of a team-led series breakaway.

But Montezemolo, who in 2009 led the revolt against departed FIA president Max Mosley’s budget cap plans, told international reporters last week that F1 is unlikely to proceed unchanged when the current Concorde Agreement expires in 2012.

“We need to think about what to do,” the Italian is quoted by Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport. “It can not go on as it is now.”

Referring to the possibility of a breakaway championship, Montezemolo said: “Do we need the name formula one? I believe we could go on with a different one.

“We could continue with (owners) CVC, but only with better financial conditions.

“Or the teams start their own company and we give Bernie the presidency and we think of new and modern methods for marketing. We would do it along the lines of the NBA.”

Montezemolo said he sees Ecclestone as central to F1′s new format because of his “passion” for “racing and not the stock market”.

Montezemolo does not hide his criticism of the sport’s current governing FIA. “It cannot be that we give up everything that made our sport for the sake of costs,” he said.

“F1 is about extreme innovation and technology.”

Specifically on the 1.6 litre four-cylinder engines to debut in 2013, he admitted: “I can’t get used to it. It’s not for a sport in which we once had 12 cylinder engines.

“Ferrari will not stand in the way, but we are saying very clearly that we are not happy about it.”

According to Luca di Montezemolo, there is still a risk that formula one teams will break away and form a rival series after 2012.

Although the political row with departed FIA president Max Mosley ended with peace, the current Concorde Agreement expires before the 2013 season and the Ferrari president hints that the teams are once again pushing for more of the sport’s lucrative revenue.

According to the Telegraph correspondent Tom Cary who attended Thursday’s media dinner with Montezemolo, the 63-year-old likens F1 at present to a “prison”.

“We are at a crossroads,” said Montezemolo.

He said three scenarios are possible: the status quo, new owners for the sport with Bernie Ecclestone in charge, or a model like “the NBA”.

America’s premier basketball league is owned by the teams.

“In the end we can always find a different promoter. At the end of the day this business is not so complicated,” said Montezemolo.

Whether or not the latest breakaway threat will fail as did all the others, Ferrari’s clout is as powerful as ever and Montezemolo made clear he is no fan of the new four-cylinder engine formula for 2013.

Suffering from a bad cold and not eating dinner along with his colleagues, Montezemolo was quoted by Germany’s Welt newspaper: “We must not exaggerate the savings.

“We also must not overdo it, as we have done already with the testing ban.”

The Spanish newspaper El Pais quotes him as adding: “Ferrari will never make (road) cars with four cylinders.

“(And) what they (FIA) want to do is cut costs, but all they do is raise them if the rules change every five minutes. This is formula one, which should be the spearhead of technological development.”

He played down persistent rumours that, as a reaction to Ferrari’s championship loss due to a simple strategy mistake, significant heads will roll.

“At Ferrari we believe in stability,” the Spanish sports newspaper Marca quotes him as saying.

“But that doesn’t mean the team is locked, we need to open the window from time to time to breathe fresh air.”

On the subject of newly-legalised team orders, Montezemolo admitted for the first time that Ferrari went too far in Austria in 2002; the place-swapping controversy that triggered the ban.

“I think it (the team order in Austria) was too soon (in the season), but not in the case of Germany (2010),” he said. “Fernando was faster than Felipe.

“What is not right is when it is taking place in the first races of the year.”

He said Felipe Massa will therefore begin 2011 on an equal footing with Fernando Alonso. “I want two drivers fighting for the championship, not someone frustrated at the first race.

“This is very important, but in the second half of the season we will have an open mind and understand that the drivers know what to do if needed.”

Montezemolo promised that if team orders are deployed, it will be done transparently for the benefit of the spectators.

He also teased those present who were hoping for a shock announcement about his decision to enter Italian politics.

“I have an important announcement to make,” he joked. “I am starting my own party!

“Seriously, I have spoken with the Ferrari family and I can say that my future is here. This work is my life and it will remain so.”

A 20-race calendar is too long for formula one, according to former FIA president Max Mosley.

2010′s tally of 19 races was the equal-biggest in the history of the sport, and next year the rally is growing to twenty rounds.

The USA and Russia are set to join possibly more additional grands prix in the near future, moving Sir Frank Williams to recently muse that he can envisage a 22-race schedule before long.

“For me personally, it’s too much,” Mosley told the German newspaper Welt.

“In my opinion that’s too many Sunday afternoons to expect people to dedicate to formula one. At some point, it starts to become tiresome.

“And then if you start skipping a race here and there it can quickly become a habit and it can snowball in terms of the TV ratings,” he added.

Mosley, whose successor as FIA president is the former Ferrari boss Jean Todt, is also worried that F1 team budgets are still far too high.

“In January 2008 I warned that without cost reduction it won’t be only the small teams having problems,” said the 70-year-old Briton.

“It has arrived: Honda, BMW, Toyota and Renault have gone because the budgets are out of proportion.

“This continues to be true and it worries me,” admitted Mosley.

“There is the risk of a crisis in the short term,” he insisted. “Currently, a great season is being celebrated but the future looks bleak.

“For 2011 you need $100 million, with 30 or 40 from Bernie Ecclestone, perhaps 20 to 25 from sponsors or the drivers. I’d say six teams are wondering where the rest is coming from.

“It’s quite possible we’ll lose two or three teams,” warned Mosley.

His final act as FIA president was to entice new privateers onto the grid with very small budgets, but Lotus, Virgin and HRT have been criticised for lacking competitiveness.

“I don’t agree,” said Mosley. “They need to be given time to improve.

“Virgin’s development has been downright revolutionary. Their car was built entirely without a wind tunnel and that’s a warning for the likes of McLaren because their wind tunnels are like running a small town.

“On the other hand Virgin developed a car only with computer simulation and it’s only two or three seconds slower.

“No one can argue that the huge cost of the wind tunnels is justified.”

Mosley said a quick fix to the looming crisis would be a budget cap for 2012 and 2013, requiring teams to tighten their belts immediately.

Nick Heidfeld on Thursday said it would be a shame if the team orders saga is seen to have influenced the outcome of the drivers’ world championship.

With two races to go, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso is 11 points ahead of Red Bull’s Mark Webber in the points standings.

7 of those points were earned in Hockenheim, where Alonso’s teammate Felipe Massa was controversially moved aside despite team orders being banned in F1.

Ferrari was fined $100,000 for the move but Alonso kept his points.

“If Alonso wins the championship with a margin less than the 7 points, it would devalue the championship — that’s a personal view,” said former FIA president Max Mosley.

Red Bull’s team boss Christian Horner agrees, stating that seeing Alonso win because of the extra points would be “frustrating”.

Sauber driver Heidfeld said in Brazil on Thursday: “From a team’s perspective, it (team orders) is perhaps understandable.

“But it would be a shame if the championship is decided by the fact that Red Bull has followed the rules while others see it maybe differently.

“If that happens, I would really hope that Red Bull’s behaviour is seen in a positive way,” the German is quoted by the news agency SID.

Earlier this week, McLaren team boss and FOTA chairman Martin Whitmarsh refused to say a title win for Alonso would reflect badly on the sport.

“I think we’ve had a very good championship and that’s what we should think about, full stop,” he said.

Max Mosley believes a title for Fernando Alonso with less than seven points ahead would be dangerous for Formula 1
If Fernando Alonso the world title this year did not win more than seven points ahead, then it would devalue the Formula 1, says the former FIA president Max Mosley. Thus the British refers to the change of place, the Ferrari at Hockenheim has been implemented, as Felipe Massa Alonso had to leave the victory. Although the team was then a penalty of $ 100,000 due to team orders, but there were other sanctions, although Mosley before the hearing before the World Motor Sport Council had meant there had to be penalized.

“I have a feeling that at least the extra points scored by Alonso overtaking Massa should be withdrawn,” Mosley told the BBC repeated now. “This is the absolute minimum, because if Alonso for some reason the World Cup less than the seven-point lead would gain, he has brought there, would devalue the World Cup. But this is a personal view ..”

Former FIA president Max Mosley is preparing to launch a “comeback”, according to an Italian report.

The usually authoritative 422race.com website said the 70-year-old Briton, who headed F1′s governing body for 16 years until 2009, is secretly planning with his supporters to “reduce the power” of his successor Jean Todt by proposing rules changes.

The coup will reportedly take place at the FIA’s next general assembly on 5 November, with Mosley and also Bernie Ecclestone upset about the direction taken by Todt.

“You can always expect anything from a man like him,” said the 422race.com report.

In an interview published on Tuesday by the Guardian, F1 chief executive Ecclestone enthused about Mosley’s intellect and political prowess.

He said Mosley “would have been a very good prime minister. Max would’ve been ideal. He would know how to handle things. Max had an awful lot going for him. Maybe people thought he was too clever,” added Ecclestone.