F1 "stands accused, ahead of a new season set to generate even more revenues for the billionaire sport, of burying its head in the sand about a looming cost crisis," according to Alan Baldwin of REUTERS. Some of the smaller teams are "still fighting for survival, with Caterham now gone, even as double world champion Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes negotiate a new deal that few others could afford." There are those who fear the "division between haves and have-nots is becoming untenable." The calls at the end of last season by Lotus, Force India and Sauber for
"more money and significant cost cuts have produced little." Force India has struggled to get its new car ready,
"running it for only three days in testing, while Sauber's driver
selection has been dictated by finance as much as talent." The sport boasts an "annual turnover" in excess of $1.5B, with "more than half of that paid out to the commercial rights holders." But while teams will share more than $900M, the pot is not "split equally." Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren, whose annual budgets are estimated to be in excess of $250M, "deny they are unsympathetic but argue that the sport has always been this way." Ferrari Principal Maurizio Arrivabene: "It's a normal way, up and down, related to Formula One." Mercedes F1 Exec Dir Toto Wolff pointed to former champions Williams as an "example of a team that had turned themselves around." Wolff said, "The team has not complained. The team has spent what it had to spend, did not go into major debt but took it step by step. You can see the fruits of that." Force India Deputy Team Principal Bob Fernley said that costs "had to be reduced in a sport where running a team capable of scoring regular points" requires an annual budget of between $140M-$160M. New sponsors are "thin on the ground," with even McLaren now entering its second year without a title partner. Fernley said, "Sponsorship for Formula One, as for all sports, is under pressure because there is so much choice for the sponsors. So we have to be smarter and more competitive and we are not prepared as a sport to recognize that" (REUTERS, 3/6).
ECCLESTONE SPEAKS OUT: MOTORSPORT's Adam Cooper reported F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone has expressed his "frustration at being unable to push through his plan to offer teams a low cost chassis package." Ecclestone said that he wants to charge teams £15M ($22.6M) for a pair of chassis which would "use engines supplied by Cosworth or Renault." Ecclestone has been pushing his idea, which has sometimes been described as "GP1," for "some time." However, he said that the teams will not accept it. Ecclestone: "Some of the other teams are saying, 'Well, this isn't Formula One, this would be downgrading Formula One.' I can't see that. I'd call these four or five teams that we supplied chassis to the 'Team Championship.' They would all be in the Team Championship but they wouldn't be able to win the Constructors' Championship." Ecclestone said that he is "frustrated by the way teams spend money." He said, "There are teams that spend maybe £500 million ($752M) a season and other people that are trying to work with a £120 million ($180M) budget, which is still too much. ... So it is all nonsense. It is all complete hypocrisy,
which upsets me. It is complete stupidity. So everyone has got their
corner they want to fight for. The FIA want to be green, the teams are
split on what they want to do and we want to make sure the championship
is successful. We are in the entertainment business" (MOTORSPORT, 3/8).
