Mosley: « F1 could survive without Ferrari »

FIA President Max Mosley insisted that Formula 1 could live without Ferrari in response to Luca di Montezemolo, who criticized the new budget cap regulations.

The president of Ferrari opposed this new regulation point in a letter addressed to the FIA and revealed yesterday by the magazine Autosport.

In his letter, di Montezemolo stated that the budget cap could compromise the credibility of the sport and that it is difficult to implement. He suggested that all aspects of the new regulations should be carefully examined.

But Mosley emphasizes that the £40 million budget is vital for the health of F1, stating that if Ferrari decided to withdraw from F1, it would be simply sad. He added that the Scuderia will have difficulty justifying its opposition to this budget given the amount of money it could save.

« Sport can survive without Ferrari, » said Mosley to the Financial Times. « It would be very sad to lose Ferrari. It’s the Italian national team. »

« I hope and believe that when a team requests an appeal before the World Council saying, ‘I want to go to war with the FIA because I want to be able to spend more than 100 million pounds (more than 112 million euros),’ the council will say, ‘Why can’t you spend 40 million pounds if the other teams can do it?’ »

Mosley reiterated that this budget was vital for the financial health of F1 both in the long and short term.

« The implementation of a cost cap is designed to last. There is room for discussions; it may increase or decrease in 2011, and if the general economy improves, for example in 2014, then this budget may rise. »

The credit tightening hasn’t really affected F1 yet. Obviously, we lost Honda, but the real problem will arise when the current contracts are not renewed.

« I believe that FOM [Formula One Management, holder of the commercial rights of F1] will not be able to give the teams more money, » continued the Briton.

Mosley admitted that monitoring the budget cap will be challenging, but suspicions of irregularities will be the subject of thorough investigations.

« The difficulty and danger of fraud will be enormous. If we have the slightest suspicion that someone has cheated, we will send a team to check. »