F1: "if you don't cut costs, we will," FIA tells teams.

The last manufacturer's F1 team to go out of business was Lotus. But the last rites have been said for many independent teams since then: Tyrrell, Jordan (which via Midland and Spyker is now Force India), Minardi (which is now Torro Rosso and, reportedly, up for sale) and Super Aguri are just a few. In fact, only Red Bull and Williams remain on the grid as independent. The Mercedes involvement in McLaren is such that it would be impossible to fairly view McLaren as an independent.

Last week, the Max Mosely wrote to teams. He told them that the current level of investment is such that it is unsustainable even for factory-backed teams and that it is not only driving independents out of the sport, but creating such huge barriers to entry that no one else can afford to come in. Pointing out that manufacturers are facing difficult market conditions all over the world, and therefore have to look at all aspects of their finances, he implied that, if teams did not reign in expenditure, there was the danger that manufacturers would decide that the costs of racing did not produce a sufficient benefit. His comments were no doubt a swipe that those manufacturers who have threatened to make a break-away series if they do not get a greater share of the revenue from the sport.

“The major manufacturers are currently employing up to 1000 people to put two cars on the grid," he said.

The FIA has given teams three months to come up with viable proposals to reduce costs - ironically exactly what Paul Stoddard of Minardi was pleading for before his team ran out of money but at that time the FIA didn't listen.

The proposals contain some radical concepts. One of F1's tenets has been that teams must either develop or buy in technology but not share it. That was one of the big arguments about the Super Aguri chassis this year - some teams argued that they had been given Honda's chassis from last year and that broke the rules.

Now, the FIA will consider technology sharing - although whether that extends to chassis remains to be seen.

In essence, the FIA has given teams three months in which to provide detailed proposals as to the technical specifications that the sport will run to from 2011. In the absence of good enough attempts, the FIA will produce its own techspec.

But one proposal seems to be counter-productive if the objective is to facilitate optimum performance and racing at each track - that of sealing the gearbox so as to prevent gear ratio changes for an entire season. Racing at Monza, Donnington and the new breed of track such as Kuala Lumpur to say nothing of the rash of street circuits now proposed as well as widely different climatic conditions suggest that this is not a great plan.

Or maybe we will see F1 moving to CVT. Oh, yes. That been tried before: in 1993 Williams / Renault developed it and David Coulthard tested it. It banned by, er, the FIA.

The FIA's statement in full:NEW RULES FOR 2011We need proposals for regulations to come into force no later than 2011. These should be delivered to the FIA by 3 October 2008 and be sufficiently detailed to allow precise rules to be drafted.Reduced costs:It is for the teams to decide how to reduce costs and also to decide if there should be restrictions on the development budgets of the manufacturer teams and, if so, what these should be and how they would be enforced.The rules must also allow a back-of-the-grid independent team to operate profitably.Teams which design and develop their own drive train (usually manufacturer teams) must be prepared to supply a complete and fully competitive drive train to an independent team at very low cost. We would suggest about 2 million Euro per season per team. The complete drive train would include all the new energy-saving technologies (eg KERS) and cost would be a design constraint as it is in the car industry.Among possible cost savings which the teams may wish to consider are: restrictions on simulators, wind tunnel use, CFD and other home-base facilities, together with long-life chassis components, up to ten-race drive trains, no gear ratio changes during life of drive train, current parc fermé rules extended for entire race weekend and other proposals to reduce the cost per kilometre of operating a Formula One car and the costs of going racing.We would not object to shared technology, eg of core engine.Measures to reduce costs must not affect the spectacle in any way.Improved fuel efficiency:The objective is a 20 percent reduction in fuel consumption for 2011 progressing to 50% in 2015, while keeping lap times and top speeds at current levels.We believe this can best be regulated by placing a limit on both fuel flow and the total quantity of fuel used in the race (thus limiting both maximum and average power). The road-relevant research objective would then be more power from less fuel.We hope to see many new energy-efficient technologies deployed. We would like rules to maximise the incentive to develop road-relevant devices for improved fuel efficiency. Teams will need these in order to obtain maximum power from a limited amount of fuel.We would suggest limiting KERS to 200kw out and 300kw in, with maximum of 1.6 MJ stored energy. We would not exclude taking energy from the front wheels during braking.We would not exclude the possibility of variable aerodynamics.Again, it is for the teams to decide how these objectives can best be achieved and whether any, and if so which, restrictions should be placed on the drive train technology needed to produce the necessary improvements in efficiency.Improved racing:The 2009 Technical Regulations are intended to improve the racing. We would like to go further, with developments to allow the cars to run in close proximity to one another without losing performance. One possibility is that the car behind should be faster by virtue of being behind not, as at present, slower.Again, it is for the teams to decide how to achieve these objectives.3 July 2008

(statement courtesy FIA)