Sauber Team Principal Monisha Kaltenborn believes there is "an agenda" in F1 "to force small teams out of the sport," according to the BBC.
Marussia "went out of business earlier this month" while Caterham is fighting for its future.
And Sauber, Force India and Lotus have said that "revenues are split unfairly in favour of the top teams." Kaltenborn: "The agenda seems to be that people are looking at four or five names to remain. When ideas are offered to us of a year-old chassis or engines which maybe are a different spec, a different series -- there must be an agenda." She added, "The more these ideas come up, the more we three get the feeling that maybe some people don't want us to be around and maybe the sport is supposed to be changed in a very different way." Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner, however, "refuted any claims of an agenda." He said, "Red Bull's position is we want to see a full grid of two-car teams" (BBC, 11/10). SKY SPORTS' Mike Wise reported Force India Deputy Team Principal Bob Fernley said, "We were given a clear direction there is no money on the table. There is a very clear program coming in. The goal is to move to customer-car teams and the three cars will be the interim. That would allow them to keep the numbers while the customer cars are brought in." He added, "Again this comes back to short-termism for profit. Simply how much money can we generate for the shareholders of CVC. End of story." Yet according to Mercedes F1 Exec Dir Toto Wolff, "the offer to help smaller teams still stands." Wolff: "First of all, it’s not true because I was in the meeting with the small teams -- I represented the union of the big ones in there -- and that wasn’t what was said. I think that CVC, that’s the commercial rights holder, and Bernie are looking at the situation and discussing with the small teams what can be done to make life easier for them" (SKY SPORTS, 11/10).
NOT WITH US: MOTORSPORT wrote Mercedes "has warned it will quit Formula One if moves to revive the old V8 era are successful." Amid the debate about "costs driving small teams out of F1, and the separate argument about an engine development 'unfreeze,'" F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone showed his hand by "reiterating he is staunchly opposed to the new V6s." Ecclestone: "We need to change the regulations. We're going to try to get rid of these (V6) engines." Mercedes Non-Exec Chair Niki Lauda "warned that bringing back the V8s would have other drastic consequences." Lauda:
"If V8 comes back, Mercedes will be gone" (MOTORSPORT, 11/10).
