From GMM

Formula one might not survive much beyond one more season if teams do not drastically slash costs, FIA president Max Mosley has warned.

On the same day that the World Motor Sport Council gave him the authority to enter talks with the teams' FOTA alliance about "radical" cost cutting measures, Mosley said the futures of up to three teams could be in doubt.

In interview with BBC Sport, he insisted that the problem existed long before the current global financial crisis.

"It really is a very serious situation. If we can't get this done for 2010, we will be in serious difficulty," Mosley said.

He said the loss of two or three teams would mean F1 no longer has a "credible grid".

"We can survive through 2009, but I'm not too sure about after," Mosley said.

He said small teams like Toro Rosso and Force India are being "subsidised" only by billionaires like Dietrich Mateschitz and Vijay Mallya.

"It depends at the moment on millionaires -- billionaires, we don't have millionaires now. Without them, those teams wouldn't be there," he added, suggesting that not only the small teams are in trouble.

"You cannot run a business when the outgoings are two to three times more than what's coming in.

"Some of the manufacturers are already having difficulty if you look at their share prices," he added.

It is clear that Mosley is targeting the standardisation of engines and gearboxes, which he admits would be "draconian" but necessary, as a way to cut millions out of annual budgets.

On the other hand, Norbert Haug says Mercedes-Benz's motor racing programme is secure.

"The financial crisis is certainly not helping," the German marque's motor sport president told Auto Motor und Sport, "but motor racing is still highly profitable."

Haug insists that the Stuttgart based manufacturer, in collaboration with the British championship contenders McLaren, has always had its F1 budgets under control.

"In the last ten years," he explained, "we have never exceeded our budget. On the contrary; we have sometimes spent much less."


Photo Credit : WRI2