Horner believes FIA policing of RRA would be wrong

As reported by AUTOSPORT last week, most Formula 1 teams signed a letter to FIA president Jean Todt asking the ruling body to step in following the breakdown of talks between the top teams on the future of the RRA.

Horner said on Friday in Malaysia that Red Bull had not even seen the letter, but he made it clear he believes the FIA policing costs is not the way to go.

He did insist, however, that Red Bull was in favour of doing all it can to control costs in the sport.

"We didn't see the letter," said Horner. "I can't sign something we didn't see, whether or not we agree with content is something else.

"Red Bull is fully behind cost control in F1, whether the RRA is the right route to achieve is what we question and I believe that letter from what I read requested the FIA to police the RRA, which in our opinion would be the wrong route.

"We believe wholeheartedly in controlling costs and not frivolous spending but we believe there are better ways of containing that through better sporting and technical regulations [rather] than cost constraints. We would be totally open to any discussions that involved cost control through those avenues."

Horner reckons the way to go is to control "tangible, measurable" items rather that using the FIA to limit other areas that are very hard to police.

"There are things when FOTA was first created that were clear and tangible: restriction in personnel, restrictions in engine, amount of gearbox, restrictions in amount of testing.

"They are all things you can see and police and genuinely save costs, and they are the type of things that should be focused on rather than a portion of people's time and equivalency.

"That is something much harder to police especially when there are companies and teams that are subsidiaries of other organisations. We want to keep it simple and go on tangible, measurable items."