Mosley wants promotion/relegation system

"Well, we should do it," Mosley told reporters on Tuesday. "What ought to happen, and we are nowhere near sorting this out, is that we should have a feeder formula for Formula One, like a sort of F3000/GP2, but properly regulated for that purpose.

"And then we say that whoever wants a super-licence must come through that formula - there will be no short cuts apart from genuine ex-F1 drivers. And then have some of system where the best from that had an opportunity to go up and the worst of the F1 teams had to consider going down."

Mosley believes the idea would help reduce costs and have a competitive field of 12 teams, with the weakest outfits being relegated to the lower category.

"It could be healthy, and one of the problems with bringing the costs down and making it prosperous and everybody can run at a profit and you have got 12 competitive teams, then there is a danger that it becomes a closed-shop and it is not possible to get in, even if you want to come in," Mosley added.

"At the moment it isn't because the costs went to the point that we were putting people out of business and that created vacancies. That is not the best way of doing it, but the promotion should come from a promotion/relegation system.

"But that is a whole huge discussion to be had with the teams, because anybody who thinks they might get into the category won't be too happy about it."

One of the problems the idea would face is the difference in the budget needed to run a Formula One team compared to lesser series.

Teams in the GP2 championship, seen as feeder series to Formula One, run on a budget of a couple million dollars, while F1's top teams spend in excess of $300 million a year.

Mosley, however, is aiming to reduce costs so a competitive team can be run with a budget of $100 million.

The FIA president is hoping a more balanced sharing of Formula One's revenues would help smaller teams when they joined the top category.

"Well, the team coming down would lose their sponsors," said Mosley. "One of the things is that the proportion of the 100 million that comes from Bernie [Ecclestone] will be quite high, because he is effectively doubling what he gives the team.

"And if we can get him to spread the money evenly or even favour more the teams at the back, because that is what you would do if you were running the system rationally - the smaller teams would actually get more money than the successful teams because a successful team gets massive television exposure while a team at the back gets five percent of the TV exposure of the team at the front but they cannot get by on five percent of the budget.

"So if there is budget you can control then you should use it to help raise the level of the smaller teams. It is a less extreme version of the thing in not giving the manufacturers any money. Again I cannot control that, that is really Bernie.

"We want proper competitive teams and you could see a system where, for the sake of argument, half the money came from Bernie, and if you were then promoted from GP2 then you have an instant 50 million Euros or your 100, and then you got to hunt around and get the rest from sponsors.

"But the fact you have been brilliantly successful in GP2 and you have been promoted means you have a chance. And equally the people going down, they are probably starting to lose the sponsor money anyway.

"It is an area that we have not really looked at yet, because we haven't had that problem. It is only if we solve the financial problem then we can get into it."