Max Mosley presents radical reform plans to Formula One teams

Max Mosley will table radical cost-cutting proposals that could transform the face of Formula One in a meeting in Geneva today
The president of the FIA will meet with the Formula One Teams' Association to discuss the future of the sport, but it appears that the teams have numerous reservations about the plans.

Mosley's proposals are outlined in the agenda for the meeting, which we reproduce below. The most controversial is the suggestion that all the teams should use a common power train, i.e. the engine and gearbox.

The teams are concerned that while this would certainly result in radical cost reductions, it would also at a stroke remove the reason why most of the major car manufacturers own or support Formula One teams in the first place.

Mosley will tell the team representatives that he believes that the current costs of Formula One are unsustainable. He will suggest that, even before the current crisis, teams were living beyond their sponsorship incomes. He is concerned that the future of the sport relies on the whims of wealthy individuals and enormous funding from increasingly cost-conscious motor manufacturers.

The teams, on the other hand, are concerned that the sort of proposals Mosley wants them to adopt may see the end of Formula One's unique selling point: that it is the only form of motor sport in which the teams are obliged to build their own cars.

They fear that the move to a common engine and common chassis parts – also mentioned on the agenda – will leave Formula One little different from the American Indycar series or its own "feeder" formula, GP2. In both of these all teams and drivers use identical cars and engines, and development and modification is strictly limited. The teams believe that moving Formula One in a similar direction would threaten its position at the pinnacle of world motor sport.

Mosley may well be recalling a time when he was more intimately involved with the sport, as one of the owners of the March Formula One team in the 1970s. Back then, almost all of the teams used Ford Cosworth engines, and many bought their racing chassis from manufacturers, March being one of the most prolific.

Formula One was cheap and cheerful, but the racing was still fast and competitive. Does Mosley want to take the sport back to the future?

The agenda for the Geneva talks:

Costs
1. The need to reduce costs
2. Budgetary targets

Power train
1. Plans for 2013
2. An interim engine for 2010 – 2012 inclusive
3. Interim measures for 2009
4. Performance differentiators

Chassis
1. Common parts
2. Other measures to reduce costs
3. Performance differentiators

Race Procedures
1. Measures to reduce the cost of going racing
2. Facilities available to teams
3. Pit lane layout
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