An icy wake-up call for the F1 rebels
If F1's midfield alliance thought there would be swift progress in the cost row, events in Brazil dashed their hopes. Does F1 now have to consider previously-unthinkable ideas, asks DIETER RENCKEN
It was an astonishing about-turn, but if Formula 1's three battling teams honestly believed Bernie Ecclestone's admission at Austin that the sport's funding crisis was "probably my fault" and that remedial action would be taken despite the 84-year-old admitting he had "no idea how to fix it", team bosses at Lotus, Force India and Sauber unsurprisingly received icy wake-up calls in Sao Paulo.
There, Ecclestone suggested the answer to their combined dilemmas lay in "spending less" - despite governance procedures and regulations for the costliest sport on Earth being totally skewed against independent operations, with three majors receiving the bulk of F1's billion pound annual revenues simply for fortnightly presenting themselves cars for scrutineering.
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