Theissen: Ford Exit Shows F1 Must Cut Costs

Formula One must make cost-cutting a priority after Ford's decision to quit Formula One and put its Jaguar team up for sale, BMW motorsport director Mario Theissen said on Friday.

"We regret Jaguar's decision to pull out," he said. "This and the discussions of the past month show that solving the cost question is the most urgent thing in Formula One."

BMW, partners to former champions Williams, are at loggerheads with the International Automobile Federation (FIA) over new engine regulations the sport's governing body plans to introduce in 2005.

The FIA is determined to switch to a 2.4 litre V8 format that lasts for two races while BMW, who have made veiled threats in the past about pulling out if Formula One no longer fulfills their aims, want to retain the three litre V10s.

"The goal must be to avoid increased costs through the new rules and to cut the cost of racing and testing," said Theissen.

Ford earlier announced that their Jaguar team was up for sale along with engine manufacturer Cosworth, who supply struggling Jordan and Minardi.

"If Cosworth is to be sold, then it has to be as a profitable company, it has to have profitable contracts," said Ford vice-president Richard Parry-Jones. "Therefore we cannot subsidise engine prices for other F1 teams in the future."

The cost of engines is a major issue in Formula One, with FIA president Max Mosley saying in Italy at the weekend that it was the major sticking point preventing new teams from entering the sport.

A year's supply, with the cheapest costing in the region of $20 million, comprises a big part of a small team's budget.

"The multi-race engine does make it possible to supply a second, third and maybe a fourth team," said Mosley.

"We have to prepare the ground for the day when we don't have seven manufacturers. We might easily get back to the days of three, four, maybe even two manufacturers, at which point where are the engines going to come from?

"The answer is whoever supplies them, they have got to be inexpensive because people are going to have to buy them."