Mosley gets tough on engines

At the same time as outlining the current state of F1 rule developments at Monza (Click HERE for the full story), Mosley admitted that although he would be concerned about manufacturers leaving the sport, he thinks that a responsible governing body should seek a fabric that will not put Formula 1 out of the reach of either commercial engine suppliers or independent teams.

Honda and BMW have both said that they might reconsider their involvement in F1 if engine rules are too restrictive, but Mosley said: "If you take literally what everyone says, if we go for a restrictive engine, there are two manufactures who might leave. But if we allow the current levels of freedom to continue there are two manufacturers who almost certainly will leave. It just depends if you believe them or not. It's always difficult to know.

"In the final analysis, if you are left with the choice of going for relatively inexpensive engines where, in the worst case, a commercial engine builder could make one and come and race with it successfully, or going for very expensive ones where you are totally dependent on the manufacturers to supply competitive engines, then a responsible governing body would have to go for the inexpensive option. Also, under the Concorde Agreement, part of that clause that we are using (to demand the rule changes) requires us to do whatever least influences the teams."

Mosley admitted that it is impossible to please everyone but continued: "My personal view is that if we go to the less expensive option I don't believe anybody is going to leave. Manufacturers come and go for all sorts of reasons, but there is always going to be enough technical freedom for them to justify their presence as far as technology is concerned.

"We are trying to make sure that no matter how much money somebody spends they will not have a huge horsepower advantage over someone who spends a great deal less money. You need that for competitiveness and if you can avoid the small teams having wholly uncompetitive engines, then you've gone some way towards doing that."

And, again making it perfectly clear that he did not see a manufacturer-dependent F1 as the future, he explained: "The unhealthy aspect of F1 at the moment is that we haven't had any new teams other than Toyota. We need the professional racing teams here. And there are at least four that I know of who'd like to come in but, contrary to popular belief, it's not the $48 million deposit that's stopping them, it's the availability of engines.

"If we can get them competitive engines they will be in, because they don't have to put up $48 million in cash, they have to put up a bank guarantee, and anyone who has got the means to do F1 can do that. We are very conscious of these things. It's what we are working on, very much."