FOTA to push for greater revenue share

With FOTA due to meet with FIA president Max Mosley in the next few days, the body's chairman Luca di Montezemolo has suggested that work on cost cuts must go hand-in-hand with a greater share of the sport's profits being given to the teams.

Speaking about the next steps for FOTA in the wake of Honda's withdrawal from F1 on cost grounds, he said: "In the short run we'll organise a meeting with Max Mosley to present him the details of our proposals and to discuss with him how to improve the show our sport offers. Furthermore we also agreed that it's necessary to meet with Bernie Ecclestone to talk about the distribution as far as the earnings are concerned."

The teams' stance that they should get more income from Ecclestone has been supported by Mosley, who wrote to FOTA last month saying that the governing body wanted to push for an increased revenue share.

Mosley wrote in a letter about future cost cut plans: "The FIA would join with FOTA in seeking to persuade FOM to divide the prize money so that up to 12 teams are guaranteed at least $50m (€40m or £33m) each. This would ensure a full grid with a strong possibility that new teams will enter the championship, filling the two vacant slots as well as any additional vacancies."

FOTA met this week to further discuss rule changes that will help bring down budgets in the sport, and di Montezemolo says he is pleased with the progress being made.

Although no details of what is being looked at have been released, autosport.com understands that one of the major steps being looked at is a dramatic reduction in aerodynamic testing and wind-tunnel running.

Speaking about the meeting, di Montezemolo said: "First of all I want to say that I was very satisfied with the meeting's extremely cooperative climate. We unanimously took some very important decisions with short-term and mid-term impact, for the years 2009 and 2010, while we also set out a proposal for a new engine starting in 2011.

"We gave a further input as far as cost reduction is concerned to help especially the smaller teams over the upcoming season. It's a huge effort from all of us, which is important for two reasons: firstly because it wasn't planned, considering what has been planned a few weeks ago, and secondly, because it happens in a very delicate overall economical situation."

He added: "I think that we've given an unanimous reply to the requests FIA has made several times; therefore we've shown that we have a great capacity to react and to suggest solutions, backed by all of us protagonists in Formula One, from the big car manufacturers to the independent teams.

"The aim is to reach unanimous decisions, which satisfy all our requests, while we don't touch Formula One as a sporty and technological competition amongst teams."

Di Montezemolo has also expressed his sadness at Honda's decision to withdraw from Formula One on cost grounds - but is confident teams are doing all they can to reduce budgets without the sport losing any of its appeal.

"I'm really sorry to hear this and I am close to the men of the team in this very difficult moment," he said. "Unfortunately these things can happen in difficult times like these. Over the years we've seen coming and going several constructors in Formula One."