Dec 11, 2008, 18:16 GMT
Stuttgart - Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo believes Formula One's governing body the FIA and the Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA) have found the right measures to help the sport come through the current global economic slowdown.
The two groups held crisis talks in Monaco Wednesday about the future of F1 where escalating costs and Honda's shock withdrawal last Friday were discussed.
The worldwide economic crisis and the enormous increase of costs in Formula 1 over the last years led the FIA and its president (Max Mosley) to give a strong and right impulse to cut costs as of 2010 to get our sport back into acceptable economic dimensions, so all teams will be able to participate,' said FOTA chairman di Montezemolo in a statement released Thursday.
'The answer we could find was beyond all our expectations. The extreme compactness, never seen before, and all the participants' passion for this sport brought the FOTA members to go beyond the requests made by President Mosley, taking into account courageous proposals, while voting unanimously for a substantial reduction of costs already as of 2009, which will be the most difficult year for the world economy and for the automotive industry in particular.'
The Italian refused to elaborate on what had been discussed and decided at the landmark meeting between the sport's teams and the FIA while Mosley simply stated that he was `'delighted with the outcome.'
Mosley was in favour of the introduction of a standardised, low- cost, Cosworth-supplied engine, whilst FOTA pushed an alternate low- cost, 1.8-litre turbocharged, but not standard, engine formula.
The agreed decision will go before the World Motor Sport Council in Paris on Friday for final ratification.
'There is a common sense of the difficult moment of our sport. Yesterday we could see the great responsibility of all the participants,' said Montezemolo.
The proposals presented to President Mosley, with Formula 1's DNA in mind made of technology and sportiness will enable us to drastically cut costs as of the upcoming season to have a complete new Formula 1 in the year 2012.'
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