Mercedes's Norbert Haug says cost-cutting deal 'vital' for F1's future

As AUTOSPORT revealed over the weekend, the FIA has given teams until July 24 to try and come up with much-needed sporting regulation changes for 2013 that will help keep expenditure in F1 down.

Furthermore, the door remains open on implementing a way that the governing body can police a Resource Restriction Agreement.

But with ongoing disagreements between teams about what regulations changes should be made, allied to how far-reaching a RRA should extend, there remains scepticism about the necessary majority consensus being reached.

But Haug thinks the matter needs to be treated with the utmost urgency, and teams should not ignore the importance of the opportunity they now have.

"This is vital to the future of Formula 1," Haug told AUTOSPORT. "It cannot just be a spending competition. Look at us; we spent three times in 2005 in F1 what we did in 2010. Be it engine, aero or whatever; reducing the costs is vital for the future of F1."

Haug thinks that all the interested parties needs to take on responsibility to pushing through what is needed, with teams having missed a deadline to produce technical regulation changes for 2013.

"There are lots of ideas, but we need a common decision," explained Haug. "The FIA needs to be committed to it and FOM needs to be fully committed to it if we are to have 10 teams or more in F1.

"To have those 10 teams plus, we need to have binding rules. For now we have a binding contract. The governing body needs to look at it. That's not a political statement from Mercedes either, it's from my heart. It's what I feel."

The FIA has held a series of meetings with teams over recent weeks to try and push through cost-cutting regulations, and those talks are likely to continue ahead of the July 24 deadline.