Sauber backs Max Mosley's free Formula 1 rules 'revolution' plan

Former FIA president Mosley revived the idea earlier this week, when he suggested that teams could be given total free rein on car design if they operated under a limited budget.

He believes it would be a way of both controlling costs and allowing technical innovation to thrive in F1.

Now Sauber team principal Monisha Kaltenborn has backed Mosley's idea - claiming the 'free rules' tweak to a cost cap is exactly what F1 needs.

"As a team we have always said that a budget cap is the only sensible way ahead," Kaltenborn told AUTOSPORT.

"It brings you into a healthy region of how much you should be spending.

"With Max's idea, he has done the most he can to bring out the technical and engineering challenge.

"I don't think there is any other concept out there that would allow you to maximise this part - which is the essence of F1.

"F1 is about racing primarily, but it's also about engineering."

With last year's cost control efforts having been frustrated by the bigger teams, Kaltenborn said that radical thinking is now required.

"Max has expressed an interesting and good idea here - and you need visions today in F1," she added.

"This kind of vision for me shows that maybe you need some kind of French Revolution in the sport, because that was at the time also about freedom and equality.

"Maybe it's time for a French revolution."

CRUNCH MEETING

F1's big teams are set to discuss rule change ideas at the next meeting of the Strategy Group on May 14, as the sport considers an overhaul for 2017 aimed at increasing excitement.

Although Strategy Group teams rejected a budget cap proposal last year, Kaltenborn thinks that some form of cost limit could even be accepted by big teams.

"Max came up with the cost cap in 2009, and interestingly the manufacturers picked up on that idea afterwards," she said.

"They saw the necessity to bring the sport to a level where it was financially healthy.

"It became the basis for the RRA [Resource Restriction Agreement]."