Gascoyne backs testing reduction

FIA president Max Mosley is making a renewed push to dramatically reduce costs in a bid to make the sport sustainable but also secure the future of the independent outfits.

And although Mosley's idea of manufacturers supplying engines free of charge to customer teams has been greeted with scepticism from some quarters, Gascoyne thinks there are other ways that small teams like Force India can be helped out.

"The manufacturers understand they need independent teams," said Gascoyne. "Otherwise, if it's just five manufacturer teams racing around that is not in anyone's interest.

"I think we need regulations like reducing testing, we shouldn't be testing during the season, plus longer-life engines. That will reduce costs, and I don't think anyone can argue that shouldn't be the way we go."

Gascoyne thinks that the sport spends more money than it actually needs to - although reigning in the costs of some of the leading manufacturer teams is not so easy to achieve.

"Formula One does need to control costs, but how you actually achieve that I don't know," he said. "We have two-race engines and we should possibly expand that - everyone has been able to cope with it.

"Obviously Formula One needs the smaller teams in it. At the moment it is incredibly competitive, and we're regularly qualifying well under two seconds off the quickest lap time - and we do that off $120 million.

"So why are teams spending $500 million? You can blatantly have a competitive series with cars that we produce which, let's face it, three or four years ago would have been middle to top ranked cars.

"How you make that happen I don't know. But F1 should ensure that teams can compete and can buy engines and drive trains for sensible amounts of money. Whether it will happen or not, who knows?"