• News

F1 meeting over costs and engine freeze yields little progress

ESPN Staff
November 8, 2014 « Who said what after qualifying | Caterham crowd-funding attracts potential buyer - administrator »
© Getty Images
Enlarge

A meeting between F1 team principals and Bernie Ecclestone failed to offer immediate solutions to F1's cost crisis or plans to open up engine development during the 2015 season.

Despite lengthily talks in the Interlagos paddock on Saturday evening, F1 team bosses said no real progress had been made on two of the sport's most pressing political issues. When leaving the meeting, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said: "No. Nothing on anything, but we spent a good two and a half hours! The situation is unchanged on everything, the money side, engine side."

At the US Grand Prix the three smallest teams remaining in the paddock - Lotus, Force India and Sauber - were hoping to strike a deal with Bernie Ecclestone and the sports controlling shareholder CVC Capital to receive a base payment to help them meet the costs of competing in F1. Lotus boss Gerard Lopez was hoping a deal would be struck before this weekend, but in Interlagos Force India owner Vijay Mallya said Ecclestone would talk to CVC Capital co-chairman Donald Mackenzie next week.

"It is unlikely that progress will be made in such a short period of time," Mallya said. "How do we know how long this discussion with Donald is going to take? He [Ecclestone] just said 'I'll talk to Donald next week and get back to you'. That's it. That's why when I came out I said there's nothing to say."

Mallya added: "I can only tell you what discussions we had. We presented our case, he said he'd talk to Donald and get back to us. And I've heard this before. So the option is to just wait and watch."

A proposal to lift the current freeze on engine development during the season was also discussed as Renault and Ferrari hope to be given another opportunity to catch up next year. The current system works using tokens to moderate the amount engine development over the winter and Mercedes offered a compromise where a very small amount of tokens would be allowed during the season too. However, it was not enough for its rivals, who rejected the proposal and may now look to 2016 for bigger changes to the regulations regarding engine development.

"We offered a slight compromise which we think we can afford so as not to change the specs and the price for the customers which we think is essential in the current environment, but it wasn't accepted," Wolff said. "I'm not sure this is the end. There will be further discussions."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
ESPN Staff Close