Motorsport: Teams finalise cut-price F1 strategy

FOTA will reveal its approach to the radically-changed F1 season. Photo / AP

GENEVA - Formula One team leaders have met to finalise their strategy for the sport amid the global financial crisis.

The Formula One Teams Association (FOTA), led by Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo, will hold a news conference today to unveil their plans as the sport faces heavy cost-cutting and difficulties in attracting new sponsors and teams.

FOTA said in a statement that its proposals "are aimed at increasing the stability, sustainability, substance and spectacle of the sport."

The blueprint - to be unveiled less than four weeks before the new season starts March 29 in Australia - will draw on market research which asked F1 fans and television audiences in 17 countries what changes they wanted to see.

Teams and fans have been told by the FIA, auto racing's governing body, that F1 must cut its spending drastically in order to survive.

FIA president Max Mosley has said he wants teams to limit their budgets to $64 million (NZ$126m), instead of the spiralling annual spending of $283 million that saw Japanese car giant Honda drop out in December.

Former Honda team principal Ross Brawn was at Wednesday's meeting as he seeks to put together a management buyout that would keep the team on the grid under a new name.

Also joining FOTA president Montezemolo at the meeting were team leaders Mario Theissen (BMW Sauber), Ron Dennis and Martin Whitmarsh (McLaren), Flavio Briatore (Renault), Stefano Domenicali (Ferrari), John Howett (Toyota), Franz Tost (Toro Rosso), Christian Horner (Red Bull Racing) and Alex Burns (Williams).

Force India team owner Vijay Mallya is expected to join his colleagues for Thursday's launch.

They joined together to create FOTA last September to unite in negotiations with the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone, whose Formula One Management controls the lucrative commercial and media rights.

At a meeting in Monaco last December, FIA and the teams agreed to a series of changes which include longer-lasting engines, limits on expensive testing and cheaper, off-the-shelf engines for smaller teams.

Mosley and FIA are preparing further proposals later this month which could take effect in the 2010 season, when a United States-based team is expected to join the circuit.

The USF1 operation hopes to be based in Charlotte, North Carolina, with American drivers and meet Mosley's $64 million budget target.

Their arrival would inject new capital into F1, which has seen major sponsors back away since the financial downturn hit.

BMW Sauber lost Swiss bank Credit Suisse while Renault's title sponsor, ING, will not renew at the end of this season. Troubled British bank RBS will end its deal with Williams after 2010.

-AP