Todt: Formula One Requires a Revolution

Ferrari chief Jean Todt believes Formula One requires a revolution, if the sport is to become more affordable for teams and costs are to be reasonably cut down.

Formula One's governing body, the FIA, has been campaigning for radical regulation changes over the last couple of years in an attempt to bring down the running costs for the Formula One teams, after two teams - Prost and Arrows - went bankrupt and the future of three more remains uncertain.

Ford announced ten days ago that it would pull out of Formula One at the end of this year and has put its team Jaguar Racing for sale, along with engine maker Cosworth. The announcement has left Minardi and Jordan in a bind, as the two cash-strapped independents rely on Cosworth engines and are now left without a certain engine provider for 2005.

But Todt said that changing some of the regulations - such as limiting the amount of testing teams are allowed to run - would not be enough to bring the desired change to the sport.

"The teams' budgets are already huge," Todt told reporters at Shanghai yesterday, after the inaugural Chinese Grand Prix. "If we want to cut the costs we need a real revolution throughout Formula One. It's idiotic to say that doing less testing would be enough. Each team pay between 800 to 1,000 employees: to be more competitive one needs to invest a lot. This is today's F1 and each team know their spending limits. I repeat: to change a revolution is needed."

Todt did not rule out the possibility that some of the front running teams will be required to run a third car in Grands Prix next season, but the Frenchman said he was still optimistic that there will be ten teams on the Melbourne grid, come the opening round of 2005.

"If next year there won't be 20 cars, some teams will have to field a third car to reach that figure," Todt said. "[But] many times in this sport we've heard things that in the end didn't happen.

"Now we are saying that next year we won't have ten teams, but it isn't definitive yet. Maybe somebody will take over Jaguar. I understand that for them, like for Jordan and Minardi, the situation is tough. But I prefer to stay optimistic."