- Sauber
'Drastic' changes ahead for F1 - Kaltenborn
Sauber team principal Monisha Kaltenborn has warned that Formula One should brace itself for some "drastic" changes ahead of next year.
Three-car teams are back on the agenda after Bernie Ecclestone said he would rather see that than some of the smaller outfits running at the back of the grid. If the amount of cars on the grid drops below 20 - i.e. two teams drop out - the remaining nine teams will be obliged to field three-car teams to make up the numbers.
The prospect of one, two, or possibly three teams not making next year's grid has been speculated on in recent weeks, and Kaltenborn said the lack of further cost controls means it is likely to become reality.
"There's nothing being done and I think that some team principals, apart from myself, have said that something drastic needs to happen and then we'll react," she said. "But it's very difficult to explain to the people out there why we need that much money and we do have this image of burning cash here. Nobody can really understand that.
"I think something will happen, but I don't hope for it to happen because it's not good for any team. Something will happen because you can't go on at this level and you don't know the next thing that is going to come up that will again mean more costs.
"It's actually very depressing to see that we can't all agree on the fact that we have to reduce our costs, and by a lot of money."
Asked directly if all 11 current teams would make 2015, she added: "I'm not so sure if that is going to be the case."
Kaltenborn said the current lack of agreement on controlling costs is even more absurd considering previous plans were put in place by cash-rich manufacturers such as BMW, Honda and Toyota when they were in the sport.
"Probably the more sarcastic part about it is that we had this kind of understanding when we had so many manufacturers in the sport. They did not need to look that much at cost cutting, yet they agreed the RRA as a first step to go ahead. Most of those manufacturers have now left and still we can't agree on that bare minimum."
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