Formula 1 News

FIA: Max Mosley planning to reduce fuel use in F1 

FIA President Max Mosley sent this morning a letter to F1 Team Principals, saying it is ‘unacceptable that the major manufacturers are currently employing up to 1000 people to put just two cars on the grid’, and that the sport cannot ignore the worldwide energy problems: the ‘fuel consumption should be reduced by 50% from today’s levels by 2015, while maintaining current speeds’. The FIA President has urged F1 teams to come up with proposals to be turned into detailed rules in order to cut down costs.

Mosley‘s letter reads as follows:

Gentlemen,

Formula One is becoming unsustainable. The major manufacturers are currently employing up to 1000 people to put two cars on the grid. This is clearly unacceptable at a time when all these companies are facing difficult market conditions.

Also, with attention on energy problems world-wide, Formula One cannot afford to be profligate in its use of fuel. Indeed, without the KERS initiative, some major sponsors might already have left.

The FIA is therefore inviting the teams to make proposals:

• to reduce current levels of expenditure. New rules must ensure that the costs of the manufacturer teams come down by at least 50% and that the independent teams become financially viable. Both must be done without affecting the spectacle in any way;
• to extract more useful energy from less fuel. The target should be a (very challenging) 50% reduction from today’s levels of fuel consumption by 2015, while maintaining current speeds. The rules should encourage manufacturer teams to research technologies which are road-relevant rather than Formula One-specific;
• to improve the racing, including rules to ensure that cars remain aerodynamically efficient when in close proximity to one another.

The matter is now urgent. We need proposals which we can turn into detailed rules. These must be ready within three months and have the support of at least a majority of the teams, failing which the FIA will itself prepare new rules for 2011. Please also see the attached note.

Professor Goeschel has kindly agreed to hold meetings of FOMAC to discuss these issues directly with the manufacturers.

Yours sincerely,

Max Mosley