F1 » Bernie: Teams need F1 more than F1 needs them

Ah! Ah! I see my chance,

and I can't believe I missed this one. 2pac, you must surely admit that when reducing spending from 200m to 40m, one of the first thing you'd have to cut would be jobs.

Plus, with inevitably less development, there'd be less jobs available anyway, surely?

My original point stands though- 2pac is right about the difficulties of setting up the new championship. Even if he does sometimes come across a little immature.

And mofo refers to a gentleman who is inclined to sleep with his own mother. Muther Focker.

I have no idea what the other thing means. Perhaps I'm not 'street' enough.

wait, I apologise.. I think I've been too hasty.

2pac already explained his comment. Sorry.

In other news, I googled KMBA, but all I could find was the Kitchener Minor Baseball Association. And I doubt it's that.

yes mrdood, I concede that point but what is the "worst case scenario", using BMW as an example, BMW F1 have to cut their workforce by 50% or they continue to spend to try and be competitive and the BMW board pull the plug, like Honda, so then you possibly have 100% loss of jobs if nobody buys the remains of the team. Even worse than that the F1 spending puts the core business in jeopardy and then how many jobs could you lose?

I don't want anyone to lose their jobs, just being realistic.

The point about cutting an F1 teams money isn't really valid if you think about the number of people who work for them and all the other company's that work for / supply to them. Did anyone notice that Advanced Composites have had a drop in work and Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines have laid off 50 people. If Mad Max had his way, this would just be the start. It was made clear by Martin Whitmarsh at the weekend that BE owed the teams some money and wasn't paying up so no wander the teams are somewhat Pissed.

lol @ mrdood, I like your sense of humor.

shall I put you out of your misery? I'll give you the first two words... Kiss My... I'm sure you'll work out the rest lol.

2pac,

I see the point, but what do you think about the teams being forced to cut spending? Don't you think that they should be allowed to spend at their own will, if they prove that they are actively seeking to cut spending? and if they go bust, it's their fault? Because that's what Bernie's latter point about the spending was basically saying.

Although he then contradicted himself and said F1 would die if spending continued, so I'm to confused to know what his standpoint is now.

Personally, I'd say a budget cap is appropriate, but 40m is far to low, aye? What about 100m?

As for this particular story, I'd say that they both need each other equally as much. They'll both die alone.

Yep mrdood, we are on the same wave length.

I think that the spending of the teams needs to be lowered but to go from "spend whatever you want" to $40M overnight is total madness.

I think it should have been phased over say 5 years, $200M next season, then $150M, $100M, $50M or something similar. At least then the teams could have adjusted their workforce accordingly and could plan their budgets over the long term.

I would imagine that the teams realise they have to control spending but what they don't like is the way it's been implemented and I agree with them 100%.

@ DatManDare

The trouble is that F1 spending is so wild, that it is in danger of making F1 unviable for the manufacturers.

The reason Honda pulled out was that they were losing money as an entire company, and so they had to shed some wieght. F1 was a large and essentially unnecessary part of their annual bill, and so was one of the first things to go.

The costs are probably nothing compared with that of the *entire* company, but that's fine when siad company is making money. In a financial crisis, it's a whole different story.

So Bernie really thinks that a championship with a nameless red car will be equivalent to a championship with a Ferrari on the list of teams??
Is he really that stupid or is he bluffing?
Bernies F1 will be nothing more than an group of anonymous coloured cars going around, similar to the GP2 championship everybody knows the drivers but nobody remembers the teams they drove for...

Since the proposed penalty for going over the cap is a financial one, teams can still spend what they want. They will just have to pay a "tax" to the FIA in order to do so.