Mosley Warns: F1 Must Keep 10 Teams

Formula One teams will pay the price if they allow the number of cars on the grid to fall below 20, International Automobile Federation (FIA) president Max Mosley warned today.

Mosley told reporters he was confident all 10 teams currently entered in the Championship would survive but was concerned by the apparent failure of a 'fighting fund' to help the smaller ones stay in business.

"I gather there are problems," he said. "It would be a great pity and very short-sighted for them (the team bosses) not to do something because if one more team goes out of business, then two of the remaining ones are going to have to run three cars.

"If we sink below 20 cars then out come the third cars and that is expensive and carries no benefits for them. So there is a very powerful case for everybody getting together to get us over this year."

Formula One bosses said last month that broad agreement had been reached for a cash pool, reported in the media at around $30 million, to prevent more teams from following Prost and Arrows into liquidation.

However, Minardi boss Paul Stoddart said no money had appeared to help his team and Eddie Jordan said that the matter, proposed by Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone, remained an "ongoing discussion."

"It was a proposal. Maybe I left the room too early but I thought it was accepted. But I understood that one or two teams or maybe even more wanted time to reflect on it," Jordan said.

Mickey Mouse

"We just need an agreement. It's nice to talk about it, but talking doesn't pay the bills," Stoddart told Autosport magazine. "The commitment made in January was that there would be 10 teams in Melbourne. If you go below 10 the whole thing looks very Mickey Mouse."

Mosley said the two teams who would have to run three cars would be decided by ballot and they would not necessarily be those that could afford the extra cost. He added that some people appeared to be under the mistaken impression that the three-car rule was triggered by the grid falling to 16 cars.

"As soon as you open the Concorde Agreement it is open and shut. There's no discussion, it's 20 cars," he said.

Minardi have the smallest budget and are the most vulnerable team on the grid. They have to pay for their Cosworth engines and have yet to agree a deal with tyre supplier Bridgestone for the season which starts in Australia on March 9.

Sources told Atlas F1 that there is next to no hope that the £20 million handout will materialise and complained: "What they didn't tell us was that the fighting fund meant they were fighting with themselves over whether to do it."

The FIA has introduced major changes for 2003 including a ban on so-called 'driver aids' from the British Grand Prix in July.

"If they don't have the fighting fund it is going to be more difficult," Mosley said. "I think they'll survive but it's a pity if we don't have the fighting fund because they obviously won't survive in as fit a shape as they would if we did have it."

Jordan, who have renewed their sponsorship deal with tobacco brand Benson and Hedges after losing title backer Deutsche Post, look to be in better shape now and have said they are not looking for handouts.

"It is not included in our forecasts, it is still an ongoing discussion," Jordan said of the fund when he presented new British driver Ralph Firman to the media last week.

"To think that Jordan are getting a handout will never happen because we won't allow it to happen.

"If we ever do some deal with Bernie it will be done on a commercial basis. Jordan are not into charity. We have made it clear with Bernie that we are in a position to make sure that the season is strong for us this year."