Mosley wants incentives for low-budget F1 teams

The FIA last month approved a new set of power unit regulations aimed at reducing costs, guaranteeing supply for customer teams and closing the performance gap between engines.

"I think teams which are prepared to race on a very restricted budget, carefully checked by the FIA, should get greater technical freedom," said former FIA president Max Mosley.

Former International Automobile Federation (FIA) president Max Mosley believes Formula One teams should be rewarded for operating on a low budget.

The FIA last month approved a new set of power unit regulations aimed at reducing costs, guaranteeing supply for customer teams and closing the performance gap between engines.

The new rules come into effect in 2017, but Mosley feels they do not go far enough and says greater focus should be placed on ensuring cost of improving fuel efficiency lies with the manufacturers. 

"This is still too expensive," he told Omnisport . "The original concept of the high-tech engine was the right one.

"It obviously makes sense to limit power by fuel availability rather than engine capacity. However, the research costs should be met by the car companies involved.

"Fuel efficiency is a core issue for them and the costs should not be passed on to the F1 teams.

"The major manufacturers should be allowed to demonstrate their technology in F1 on two conditions: first, that they supply engines at low cost, say €1 million per car per season or less; second, that they supply identical units to all.

"The research costs are road-relevant and don't belong in F1. Supply costs would be very low because these relatively slow-running engines can be made to last a whole season.

"The current engine rules show a failure to think strategically. F1 needs to demonstrate social responsibility if it is to keep the major sponsors.

"The two conditions would have allowed this to happen without ruinous cost. We might have ended up with just one engine supplier plus Ferrari, but that would not have mattered - modern F1 was built on the Cosworth DFV, sometimes with only Ferrari as [a] competitor." 

And Mosley believes the sport's bosses should incentivise the reduction of costs.

"I think teams which are prepared to race on a very restricted budget, carefully checked by the FIA, should get greater technical freedom - for example with aerodynamics," he added.

"This would produce a competitive field and allow the small teams to run the best available driver, not just the richest.  

"If the current engine suppliers refuse to deliver fully competitive high-tech engines at low cost, the budget teams could be allowed cheap, low tech but powerful engines."