Mosley: No compromise over cost cuts

Mosley fears that if the FIA does not ramp up efforts to bring down budgets drastically, then several teams will walk away from the sport at the end of this year.

To prevent such a doomsday scenario, he is pushing forward with plans to slash running costs to 50 million Euros per season - through an increased use of more standard parts and guarantees of cheap engines and gearboxes.

Mosley says he in unwavering in his belief that, against the background of a worldwide economic downturn that is hurting car manufacturers badly, swift action is needed.

"It is by far the biggest (crisis) since I have been involved in the late 1960s," Mosley told reporters during a media lunch in London on Thursday.

When asked by autosport.com about what he felt would happen if no action was taken, he responded: "I think we would end up then with very few cars on the grid truly in 2010."

Mosley has said he wants provisional rules in place by the spring - and thinks that teams will have to agree with what is put on the table

"We are, how shall I put it, in a situation of force majeure," said Mosley referring to the fact that the FIA can act unilaterally in certain circumstances.

When asked if there was a risk of the FIA stance resulting in a legal challenge, Mosley said: "Anybody can go to court and dispute it, but I cannot see a judge saying you are completely wrong, you should allow these people to go bankrupt, and what on earth are you doing?"

Mosley believes the financial situation for the sport is worsening, as against the need to cut costs there is also likely to be declining commercial income coming into F1 over the next few years.

"I have got a feeling that the available income will go down even faster than we can reduce the costs. If that turns out to be the case then there isn't going to be a compromise because it is that way or no way.

"We had the meeting with FOTA on December 10, but the situation today is much worse than it was then. The car industry is like an airplane in a dive - everyone is waiting for it to pull out but so far there is no sign of it happening."

Mosley thinks that F1 has gone down the wrong path in letting costs get out of control, and thinks bringing budgets down is vital for both manufacturers and for prospective independent teams.

"The teams agree with the principle (of cost cuts) but they don't want us to do it that quickly," he explained. "I think we are going to have to do it that quickly... it is very, very unhealthy that there is no new blood in F1.

"We have two vacancies, possibly three if Honda don't make it. In the Premier League it would be unthinkable to have two vacancies so there has to be something wrong with F1 - and what is wrong is that the barriers to entry are far too high."

He added: "It was bad enough before the current situation, it is now a complete disaster. It obviously has to stop. We think it should stop for 2010 and we are urging the teams to do that."

Despite his feeings about the severity of the current situation, Mosley believes that if the FIA's plans are a success than F1 will have at least 12 teams on the grid in 2010.