Cost limitation: meeting between the FIA and the teams on January 22

The 2014 Formula 1 calendar will be busy, both on and off the track. Indeed, the announcements at the end of 2013 have established a skeletal calendar intended to pave the way for reflection on the issue of cost reduction.

In this context, the teams have been summoned for a meeting with the FIA in Geneva on Wednesday, January 22nd. The objective of the meeting will be to make progress on a number of issues, the most pressing being the economic model of the premier discipline. Cost control is expected to be introduced by January 2015 to ensure that participating teams have the necessary conditions for their survival.

The FIA wants to take advantage of the current momentum it is benefiting from, both following the announcement of various regulatory changes and the re-election of Jean Todt, to shake things up on this topic that has struggled to gain traction for several years. The main question remains which areas could have spending limits set.

An agreement must be reached before the end of June 2014, the deadline set by the FIA on Monday, December 9, following the now-famous meeting between the Strategy Group and the F1 Commission. However, the difficulty remains in getting agreement among parties whose means and interests are different: top teams with significant resources facing, at the negotiating table, smaller entities struggling for survival.

On the Ferrari side, for example, the idea would be to apply a differentiated cost limitation depending on the teams and several criteria, such as manufacturing one’s own hybrid block: « We have put on the table the idea that, instead of having an egalitarian approach, we do something different, because to be honest, we are talking about something that will only affect the bigger teams, and not the small ones that are ready to die, » stated Stefano Domenicali, as relayed by Autosport.

The director of the Scuderia Ferrari continued: « Why not consider, for example, an approach where a team that earns a certain amount of money can spend a certain amount of money? We can then maintain a balance between income and costs, aiming to ensure that everyone, with all types of structures, can have an approach that is different considering different situations. »

For Eric Boullier, director of Lotus F1 Team, the issue is different: « Basically, you need to understand that you might have three or four teams capable of spending double the average budget of the rest of the grid. For me, the problem is not what they spend because the more they spend, the better F1 is in a certain way, » he admitted to Autosport. « But you need to have competitiveness that allows most teams to fight for the podiums. If you have the same winner, as we have had in the past, it could be dangerous for F1. »