F1 chiefs under fire over lack of action

LONDON — Formula One’s authorities are coming under fierce attack for failing to curtail spiralling costs amid a financial crisis in the sport that has left two teams on the brink of collapse.

The FIA, motorsport’s governing body, had pledged to introduce a cost cap and has angered the sport’s smallest outfits with its failure to push it through.

It faced opposition from Bernie Ecclestone, the sport’s supremo, as well as the biggest teams, including Red Bull and Ferrari, who spend around £140 million (S$287 million) a year.

Jean Todt, the FIA president, told the Telegraph before this season began that “a lot of teams will die” if nothing meaningful is done to curb F1’s massive budgets.

The Frenchman’s prediction, also made by several of the smaller squads who operate on a shoestring budget, appears to be coming true with the demise of Caterham and Marussia.

Todt’s cost cap proposal came unstuck earlier this season as the FIA attempted to pass it through F1’s Strategy Group, a committee of Ecclestone’s Formula One Management, the FIA and the biggest teams. The sport’s governing body will attempt to bring cost control back on the agenda at the next meeting of the all-powerful Strategy Group.

While F1’s four smallest independent teams — Caterham, Force India, Marussia and Sauber — were frustrated with the big spenders’ opposition to a cost cap, it has been the FIA which has come in for the severest criticism.

“The FIA and Jean Todt have sold themselves to Bernie Ecclestone and have given up running Formula One,” said an insider.

There is also a feeling that Todt, unlike his predecessor, Max Mosley, has been impotent to overcome serious opposition. But the FIA argues that it is up against insurmountable barriers.

A source said: “It’s food for thought when something you have been warning about comes to pass. Sometimes, only an emergency makes people realise how big the danger is.”

Attention will now turn to Sauber, Force India and possibly Lotus as the next teams under threat. Bob Fearnley, Force India’s deputy team principal, said he was saddened to lose two teams and that more could follow.

“We’ve had three new teams since 2010, and all three have collapsed,” Fearnley said.

“The writing was on the wall from the beginning. Only five teams have a say in the running of Formula One —we’ll lose more teams if we carry on like this. If there had been cost control and more equitable distribution of the prize money, maybe Caterham and Marussia wouldn’t have failed.”