Theissen urges teams to remain positive
BMW motorsport director Mario Theissen has urged fellow team principals to remain 'positive' that a solution can be found to the controversy over a voluntary budget cap in Formula 1
Ahead of crunch talks between team principals in Monaco tomorrow to try and agree on cost-cutting proposals that the FIA is happy with, Theissen is adamant that the situation has not yet reached a critical point.
"I would say we need to be positive, we need to be confident and we need to push to get an agreement because it doesn't make sense for any of the stakeholders to damage the platform we have," said Theissen.
"At the moment there is nothing on the table that all parties agree on. We will do what we can to get there, but it needs to make sense for a team or manufacturer to be in F1."
FIA president Max Mosley said last week that the governing body would listen to any proposals put forward by teams; although he made it clear he believed there was nothing better than the budget cap route.
Despite such a stance, Theissen felt there were signs from last week's talks with the FIA that a compromise could be found.
"There were some signs from both sides that we have to move, and that we need to get together," he explained. "The focus is clearly on getting something on the table which will keep the current series up and going."
With several teams expected to hold back on entering next year's championship by next week's deadline, Theissen said there were many issues to be resolved in the discussions that take place on Monaco's rest day.
When asked whether BMW Sauber would boycott entering, Theissen said: "Our team's position is that we will discuss it on Friday within FOTA and not make any statement up front.
"To me it is really open, we have to sit down and see where we are, and then decide what we do."
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