Formula One was "on the brink just hours before the Brazilian Grand Prix as the three teams facing financial extinction were effectively told they could go," according to Kevin Eason of the SUNDAY TIMES. Instead, Ferrari and Red Bull have been "given the go-ahead to run a third car each next season in place of the bankrupt Marussia team and Caterham." In a "tense stand-off" late Saturday evening, F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone told Force India, Sauber and Lotus that there would be "no extra financial help to ease their plight, caused by sky-high engine costs imposed at the start of this season." The price of engines shot up from about £5M ($8M) a season to almost £25M ($40M). Worse still, "the five biggest teams in F1 -- McLaren, Ferrari, Williams, Red Bull and Mercedes -- have refused to rally round to help the strugglers." Ecclestone was "uncompromising in his assessment of the financial woes of the three rebel teams." He said, "The way forward is very easy -- don’t spend as much. We are giving these teams collectively $900 million and that’s enough. They have enough to survive but not in the way they are surviving. Start running the business like a business rather than a hobby" (SUNDAY TIMES, 11/9). In London, Daniel Johnson reported F1 "was on the verge of civil war." The sport's five biggest teams "declined to support their smaller competitors after two hours of fraught dialogue." Lotus Chair Gerard Lopez said, "Gordon Gecko said, 'Greed is good’ and look what happened to him -- he ended up in jail. I have never threatened any kind of protest but it is a $1.6 billion business and teams are going to the wall for the sake of a couple of tens of millions. Three-car teams will be the death of the championship." One insider added, "It is sleazy and appalling to try to push teams out of the sport for the benefit of the biggest five teams. The lives of families are at stake here" (TELEGRAPH, 11/9).
TALKS STALL: REUTERS' Alan Baldwin reported Sauber, Lotus and Force India all want a "base payment" to be introduced to give the smaller remaining teams the "minimum budget required to compete." Mercedes Exec Dir Toto Wolff said separately that "talks on lifting an engine freeze had failed to reach any agreement." To change the regulations for '15 at this stage, "unanimous agreement is required." Wolff: "We offered a slight compromise which we think we can afford to not change the specs (specification) and the price for the customers which we think is essential in the current environment, but it wasn't accepted" (REUTERS, 11/8). In London, Roger Blitz wrote F1 teams' cost crises are "frequent and inevitable." Costs have been "significantly higher because F1 shifted from V8 engines to hybrid turbo engines," which eat up $20M a season. The "solution?" Legal adviser Withers Worldwide's Anthony Indaimo said it is to "control the technological arms race and revive the personalities behind the wheel." He said, "You have to look at the business fundamentals and consider increasing and reallocating the commercial revenue as well as a spending cap to create a level playing field" (FT, 11/7).
