Bernie Ecclestone, the sport’s ringmaster, also appeared to suggest last week
that the cost of the engines — of which he has been a vocal critic — needs
to fall.
“Tell me, what was the idea of the cap? To keep costs down,” Ecclestone said.
“So we put this engine in and it costs four times more than the other one,
and costs the manufacturers a hell of a lot of money.”
The four teams also put forward means to cap F1’s frenetic development in the
middle of the season, by limiting the number of upgrades to four a year or
by establishing a cut-off point after which no new parts could be brought to
races. It is highly unlikely the larger teams would accept such an idea,
given how crucial developing the car is to the ebb and flow of any F1
season.
It has been left in the hands of the FIA, motorsport’s governing body, and
F1’s Strategy Group, made up of the biggest teams, to determine which
proposals are adopted.
“This is the last roll of the dice,” a source told The Daily Telegraph on
Sunday. “It is the final straw.”
The frustrated four are also confused as to the stance of Jean Todt, the FIA
president, who has been a vocal supporter of cost caps but gave in to
opposition from Red Bull and Ferrari, among others.
Any EU investigation would depend on whether a team made a “complaint” to the
European Commission, which is currently in a state of limbo with elections
ahead. However, there is a feeling that if the latest round of cost-cutting
proposals are rejected, one of the smaller teams has increasingly little to
lose by knocking on the EU’s door.