Mosley says if four teams sign up, the Cosworth proposal is a go for '10. (LAT Photo)
Max Mosley has moved quickly to push his standard engine plan in the light of Honda’s withdrawal announcement.
He says that the FIA has arranged with Cosworth and Xtrac/Ricardo for supplies of engines and gearboxes for 2010 at a fixed price – and that it will go ahead if four teams sign up by December 11.
Alternatively teams can build their own engines to the same standard design or continue to use their current engines, with some restrictions. In either case, the Xtrac/Ricardo gearbox would have to be used.
Today Mosley said that if the team’s don’t pay attention now, “they’ll probably get a nasty shock in the future The FIA’s job is to take action to make sure that won’t happen, and that’s why this morning we sent out a letter to all the teams setting out what we intend to do to get the costs right down.”
Mosley’s letter to the teams, which followed up one he sent on November 18, reads as follows:
“We have completed the tendering process and are now in exclusive negotiations with Cosworth together with Xtrac and Ricardo Transmissions (XR) to supply a complete Formula 1 powertrain starting in 2010. The engine will be a current Formula 1 engine while the transmission will be state-of-the-art Formula 1 and a joint effort by two companies which already supply transmissions to most of the grid.
“The cost to each team taking up this option will be an up-front payment of €1.97 million ($2.5m) and then €6.42m ($8.3m) per season for each of the three years of the supply contract (2010, 2011, 2012). This price is based on four teams signing up and includes full technical support at all races and official tests, plus 30,000 km of testing. The annual cost will reduce if more teams take up the option, for example to €5.84m per team with eight teams. It will further reduce if less than 30,000 km of testing is required. Neither engine nor transmission will be badged.
“As suggested in my letter of November 18, teams participating in the 2010 Championship would then have three options: the above; the right to build an engine themselves, identical to the above, having been supplied with all the necessary technical information; the right to continue to use their existing engine, with the current ban on development and requirement for engine parity still in place (noting that the engine supplied will become the reference engine for output and other performance indicators and no engine will be permitted to exceed those indicators).
“Teams opting for one of the latter two options would nevertheless use the XR transmission. In combination with the program of cost reductions for the chassis, race weekend and team home base outlined in my letter of November 18, these arrangements have a number of advantages.
“These include: enabling the independent teams to survive in the current difficult economic climate; facilitating the replacement of a manufacturer team if (as seems likely) we suffer additional losses; stabilizing Formula 1 while new road-relevant technologies are introduced together with a state-of-the-art high tech engine, which could be in Formula 1 as early as 2013 should the car industry by then be in a position to fund its development; avoiding any change to the Formula 1 spectacle and keeping the technology at current levels.
“These arrangements are on the basis that at least four teams enter into contracts to use the powertrain described above, and do so no later than close of business (5pm CET) on Thursday, December 11, 2008. In the event of fewer than four teams signing up, the FIA may still proceed but the price on offer will vary. The supply contracts will be with Cosworth but in the first instance teams are requested to make their intentions known to my office.”
