F1 bosses call for immediate cost cuts

Eddie Jordan, who was today forced to shed 40 staff from his F1 team, believes the sport must learn from the collapse of Prost Grand Prix, but fears big teams such as McLaren and Williams do not realise how swiftly action needs to be taken.

"We do not want a handout from the bigger teams; we would just like to see a fair view for everyone because we need to be prudent about where this goes," said Jordan. "We have to take notice of it now... We have to make sure the show is absolutely the best, make it better if possible and try to minimise costs, or F1 as we have known it for 50 years will disappear."

Jordan's comments are backed up Renault's Flavio Briatore and Arrows owner Tom Walkinshaw.

"There are some areas where we spend too much," said Briatore. "This is not for the benefit of the event. We need to be more efficient and it is important we help the small teams because F1 needs the small teams."

Mosley agrees that something has to be done, but makes it clear that the structure of F1's rule-making process prevents him from acting unilaterally on issues such as banning testing for next year.

"We need to do something before 2004 to keep the present group of teams together," he said. "But the FIA can't do anything with majority support among the team."

Jordan, Briatore and Walkinshaw gave an in-depth interview with AUTOSPORT, in which they discuss:

The current financial state of F1
The 'Kirch' effect
How the smaller teams can be helped
The long-term future of the sport

This week's AUTOSPORT goes on sale on Thursday, priced £2.80