- Lotus
Lopez fears for future of F1
Lotus boss Gerard Lopez believes Formula One needs to change if it is to survive in the future.
Lopez has attempted to shine a light on the troubles of the sport since the collapse of its two smallest teams Marussia and Caterham. Lotus, Force India and Sauber have made clear that they are not happy with the unequal distribution of funds among the teams, but Lopez says there are other big problems facing F1 too.
Asked if he feared for the sport's future, Lopez said: "Yes, I do, but not just because of this, many things. The whole engine choice was a mistake, the noise, the fans. Less fans coming, less promoters interested.
"At the end of the day I still think it's one of the biggest sports, if not the biggest sport, in the world and it does have the financial capacity and the energy to sort itself out and build something really, really great out of it again. We need to be able to do it and right now let's see what happens."
However, Lopez reiterated that boycotting races was not a method his team would use to get its point across.
"What's for sure is we are not going to boycott, I always said that was not on our cards. The last people to pay for this would be the fans and they are disgruntled enough. If it doesn't get solved next week, then maybe the next week, if not the week after. You never know what's going to happen in Formula One so we'll see."
But Lopez warned F1 against letting the issues fester away.
"There are solutions to be found, those solutions exist, I could not care less if somebody thinks differently, the same, and so on, if common sense prevails something will be done eventually. If common sense doesn't prevail nothing will be done and some crazy solutions will come up which won't be solutions."
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
