Todt calls for cut to F1 spending
Jean Todt believes F1 costs need to be drastically cut in the next few years
FIA president Jean Todt fears Formula One will be "unsustainable" if costs are not cut by 30% over the next three years.
Todt is merely echoing comments made by former president Max Mosley back in 2009 after a trio of major manufacturers - Honda, Toyota and BMW - had exited the sport. F1 teams have so far been unable to reach a compromise on spending limits in a new resource restriction agreement, with Red Bull coming out publicly against it.
Todt said on Saturday: "Formula One is too expensive. It's up to the teams to work with our people and the commercial rights holder (Bernie Ecclestone). We need to agree what to do, otherwise it will be unsustainable."
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner stated in Belgium last weekend that he did not want the sport run by accountants. But Todt can foresee if costs are not cut then it could sound the death knell for the smaller teams, particularly with new engine regulations due to come into force from 2014.
Todt claims that since 2005 there has been a 30% cut in costs, but in another interview in Italian sports newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport this week he said they needed to be "lowered by a further 30% in the next three years, or we will lose several teams".
On Saturday, Todt added: "We must reduce the costs in order to keep everybody on board. I prefer to present it like that.
"It's everybody's responsibility. We all need to share it, but I have never heard somebody saying we are against reducing costs.
"I'm sure if we make sensible proposals then everybody will be happy with that."
Asked whether the FIA would spearhead proposals rather than just pay lip service to issues, Todt said: "The FIA is the regulator and legislator of the sport.
"My job as president of the FIA is to make sure things happen, and as long as I am president of the FIA, they will."
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