SILVERSTONE, England - Former International Automobile Association president Max Mosley has warned that Formula 1 is risking serious problems unless it changes direction and cuts costs.
"There are no two ways about it," Mosley, who stood down from running the governing body in 2009, wrote on the UK's Daily Telegraph website. "If F1 continues on its current path it is headed for a major crisis.
"The future of six out of 10 teams on the grid is uncertain; there is too much artificiality in the racing; costs are far too high and all that is giving us uncompetitive and at times boring racing."
COST-CUTS URGED
The now 75-year-old during his time in office frequently urged teams to cut costs. He now suggested the problems could also affect the transfer of ownership from controlling rights-holder CVC Capital Partners.
Recent reports have indicated RSE Ventures, which owns the Miami Dolphins NFL team, and Qatar want to buy CVC's 35.5% stake in F1 in a deal involving the equivalent of about R90-billion.
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Mosley wrote: "Once spectators stop coming, the grands prix are no longer viable for the organiser. If TV audiences go down, Bernie Ecclestone has to trim down the contracts. From then on it becomes a downward spiral.
"For CVC Capital Partners, the majority shareholder, it becomes especially difficult when it is trying to off-load the sport."
Mosley, a close ally of Ecclestone over decades in the sport, said he would allow teams more technical freedom if they adhered to a cost cap equivalent to about R1.14-billion a season. He also advocated a "drastic rethink" in how the sport made up its rules, describing as "utterly hopeless" the current Strategy Group which brings together the top six teams, commercial rights-holders and federation president Jean Todt.
NON-PARTISAN PLAYERS NEEDED
Mosley again: "The best suggestion I have heard was to scrap the Strategy Group and replace it with three independent advisors; people who know the sport well but are not partisan."
Mosley listed former Honda and Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn, race director Charlie Whiting and federation safety commission president Peter Wright as ideal candidates.
His article concluded: "When I was president by some means or another we would push what we wanted through, usually by asking for more than I actually wanted. I don't know if Jean is unable to do that, but I don't think he wants to."
Read Mosley's full article in the Daily Telegraph.
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