The "Mercedes Initiative"

[Speshal]

Apologies if this has already been covered - could see it if it has (loving the new look BTW!)

A small article by Ed Gorman today injects a ray of hope into the "budget cap" disaster - I think it's a decent idea in the light of all the other stupidity.

Norbert Haug, the little-known vice-president of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport, is on the verge of being hailed as the man who made the breakthrough in the Formula One crisis over the FIA's determination to introduce a budget cap on team expenditure.

Like the United Nations, Acas and Henry Kissinger rolled into one, Haug and his colleagues in Stuttgart have come up with a compromise proposal that appears to be flexible and subtle enough to satisfy the teams and Max Mosley, the president of the FIA.

Mosley wanted to bring in his cap next season and set it at £40 million, which led to several teams, among them Ferrari, threatening not to enter the championship in 2010. Haug's plan - the “Mercedes initiative” - allows the teams to spend no more than £100 million next season, in return for which they will offer help to new teams, in terms of cheap components and shared expertise. In addition, the teams will commit to Formula One until the end of 2012 and will agree to operate under a £40 million cap from 2011.

Mosley has written to the teams indicating that he views Haug's plan as a positive step forward because, although the budget cap will be much higher than he envisaged next season, the Mercedes plan offers what one source close to him called “clarity and certainty” over the future of the sport and a much tighter budgetary environment from 2011.

 

[Brogan]

Thanks Speshal, for the comments and the article - interesting stuff.
I've been saying for a while now that a stepped cap is the way forward, if indeed a cap is inevitable.
That gives the current teams time to adjust from what is currently an unlimited budget with hundreds of employees.

P.S. Congratulations on having the first official home page topic since the switchover

 

[teabagyokel]

This is about to become a Norbert Haug Appreciation Society if this is true. Mercedes have done a good job here, and I bet their supplying of loads of engines to loads of teams is what the FIA will concede for their work!

I thought McLaren were remaining slightly quiet about it. I want to give credit to McLaren, Mercedes, Williams, Force India, BMW and Brawn for not mouthing off and helping F1 move forward! If I were Max I'd be rescinding certain priveleges for certain unnamed teams...


Good move, F1 needs a budget cap, lets live in the real world!

 

[bogaTYR]

as was to be expected. an in between year of 100 mil and then down to 40 mil. if it wasn't so completely according to expectations then maybe it would be funny. what was the point of all this?

 

[gribbli]

This is probably be where the teams will be split, the outcome of so called FOTA 'unity' maybe be singular, but the reasons for not agreeing with the budget cap are numerious, be it disagreeing in principal i.e. 'its not F1', not being able to downsize to that level between now and then, wanting to lessen the FIA's impact on the sport, or even, as noted, preferential treatment not being honoured.

So for some i think it would be what they are looking for, for others a £40m budget cap in 2011 is just delaying what they consider a bad idea, and not something they would pen to paper on.

Either way there will be fireworks tomorrow no doubt, and probably alot of agreements going on behind closed doors, but the outcome? who knows....

 

[Galahad]

United in the face of a common enemy? Never...

 

[teabagyokel]

United in the face of a common enemy? Never...

Well, we don't want the People's Front of Judea getting in the way of the Judean People's Front, do we now? I suppose it is inexperience, Ferrari aren't used to being on the team's side in such debates, are they? They were with FISA vs FOCA, they were with FIA in Indianapolis...

I think Bernie Ecclestone is crapping himself with events today, but he needn't worry. How could only Stefano Dominicali see this wasn't going to happen? (Although based on Ferrari's strategy for the last two years, Dominicali's predictions haven't exactly been stellar!)