Whitmarsh: Time to improve F1 show

That is the view of McLaren's incoming team principal Martin Whitmarsh, who feels that the early success of the Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA) in helping slash budgets can now lead to positive changes to make F1 better in the future for fans.

"All Formula One teams are highly combative and there's a lot of history among them, so it's quite challenging for those teams to be together," said Whitmarsh, who takes over as McLaren team principal on March 1, about the progress of FOTA. "But we've done a fantastic job.

"Luca di Montezemolo has been a great chairman, and so far I think he's doing a really good job. A lot of the teams have made a lot of compromises and that's what's necessary.

"If you look at the F1 grid and realise that you've got the extreme of Toyota on the one hand as one of the world's largest companies and teams like Williams and Force India on the other, and you are trying to balance their ambitions and desires for the future of the sport. That's quite a tall order. Given that, it has been a great effort.

"We have been understandably very focused on cost-saving measures so far and that has been very necessary. We were not that long ago talking about engine-only deals in excess of 20 million Euros and many, many millions required to develop transmission systems.

"We now have got a system where by for 2010 a customer team can claim its full powertrain for 6.5 million Euros, and that's a big step forward.

"It shows the commitment of the automotive manufacturers, who didn't necessarily come into this sport to provide engines to anyone other than their own team.

"There has been a lot achieved so far, but we've now got to look at how we can improve the spectacle of the sport, and make sure that we are making the decisions in a considered way and make sure we are basing it on research."

FOTA is going through an evaluation process at the moment to gather a better understanding of what fans would like to see from F1.

Whitmarsh has echoed comments from other team principals who suggest that it is important decisions are made based on proper research rather than just hunches.

"There are a number of different surveys that have been interesting, but the teams themselves are funding market research looking at race format, qualifying format, what's important, and what are the cardinal points of Formula One that we need to make sure we retain," he explained.

"I think everyone's got a very open mind about the future. I don't think we should rush into a whole range of changes because it is something new to report.

"The reality is in the last two seasons we had a very exiting climax but I think fundamentally F1 is a fantastic sport and a great spectacle and we've got to make sure we make it better for the fans that watch it."