So much for the oft-trumpeted cost cutting...

[Brogan]

How does this plan fit in with all the proposals to reduce costs?
I just don't understand this sport sometimes...

AUTOSPORT has learned that one idea that has been suggested to the teams is for the entry fee to rise from its current cost of 309,000 Euro to a level that could see several teams pay multiple millions for their entries.

Sources have revealed that the proposal that has been put forward to the teams is for the entry fee to rise to 500,000 Euro per outfit, plus 7,000 Euro per point scored in the championship.

This means that the more successful teams would contribute much more to the running of the sport and suffer a dramatic rise in costs.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/102225

 

[canis]

Erm, surely that scheme will just wipe out the money thay receive as part of the constructors championship, and if a top team is looking at struggling for a season (e.g. McLaren in 2009) then they will just give up as they will have more money for the next year?

It basically means that if the season ended today Red Bull would be looking at a bill of £1,904,000 for winning the constructors championship, doesn't seem to encourage you to do well does it?

 

[Speshal]

Since when has anything the FIA and Bernie proposed shocked you any more for the utter levels of idiocy?

 

[siffert_fan]

The amount of money being discussed is chump change, at least for the top teams. As much as 10 years ago, Ferrari were said to have an F1 budget of over 400 million dollars, and is undoubtedly more now. An additional 2-3 million added to that is rather insignificant.

For the bottom feeders such as HRT and Marussia, it might be serious enough to make them consider withdrawing from the sport completely. But would that upset many people?

The overriding question is, what would the FIA be spending the added money on?

 

[Brogan]

It may be a small amount in the grand scheme of things, but small amounts add up to large amounts.

As for losing the bottom teams, if the sport stagnates with the same 10 teams finishing in roughly the same positions year after year, with no new teams able to break into what is rapidly becoming a closed club, I think the sport will suffer in the long run.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Could you imagine the up roar if a team tells a driver not to attack or overtake to save a few quid at the end of the season. Small change to multi-million pound firms it may be but as Bro said, the bills can quickly add up. Given the choice between writing off a point or two in an end of season race which won't have an effect on the teams championship position and bunging the FIA a few more grand, which option do you think the teams will take?

"Felipe, the car behind is cheaper than you. Do you understand?"

 

[Brogan]

"Felippe, the car behind is cheaper than you. Do you understand?"

Taking it to its extreme, you could see drivers actually trying to go slower than each other in an attempt not to cross the line first...

 

[The Pits]

The regs may need to be changed to allow more than one reverse gear!

Seriously though, did they not do something with the Superlicenses a short while ago? The money gets redistributed back to the teams, after a fashion, and the teams are asking for more money from the commercial rights owners, so they are looking for ways to either increase revenue, or scare the teams into stopping asking for more.

 

[Galahad]

So I think this money goes to the FIA, rather than Bernie. Perhaps Jean can't get any more money out of Bernie (thanks, Max) and is going to take his money straight out the hands of the teams as he doles it out. It'd be funny if it wasn't so stupid.

At least the FIA will spend it on road safety programmes and the like.

 

[Brogan]

Formula 1 needs to reduce its costs by one-third by the end of 2015 if the sport is not to lose a number of teams.

That is the view of FIA president Jean Todt, who thinks that a drive to reduce expenditure that was begun by his predecessor Max Mosley needs to continue.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/102303

 

[siffert_fan]

Am I the only one that finds Todt's position ironic, considering that his former employer, the Red Menace team, vetoed the implementation of spending caps in the first place?

 

[cider_and_toast]

I think the phrase is "Poacher turned Game Keeper"

 

[gethinceri]

I can think of other ways to describe him.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Call me old fashioned if you must, but isn't the FIA talking shit...?

 

[The Pits]

All helmet related posts moved here http://cliptheapex.com/threads/nice-helmet.5441/

 

[teabagyokel]

Mephistopheles - wouldn't be the first time.