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SPECIAL: F1 Dollars and Sense
Written by: Adam Cooper   http://www.speedtv.com
10/10/2008
Fuji, Japan
 
How will manufacturer and corporate involvement in F1 be affected by the crisis in financial markets is just one big question facing the teams. (LAT photo) » More Photos

There are some big question marks hanging over Formula 1 at the moment as the world financial crisis brings efforts to cut costs in the sport sharply into focus. Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley have both indicated that they expect measures to be even stricter than those discussed in the recent past, and the prospect of a standard engine has even been mooted. That’s given the team bosses much food for discussion in meetings of their new FOTA organization. Honda’s Nick Fry. BMW’s Mario Theissen and John Howett of Toyota were given a chance to air their views in an FIA press conference at Fuji on Friday, and given the importance of the issues, their thoughts are worth repeating at length.

Q: You have been invited to a meeting with the president of the FIA. What specific areas are there where you can see that savings can be made in Formula 1?

Nick Fry: “I think the first thing to say from our side – and I think with all the other teams – we do feel there is a need to reduce costs. The important thing from our point of view is to reduce costs which frankly are wasted expenditure, and I think there are several of those areas. Whether they are enough to meet the targets that we need is another matter.

“In terms of specifics, I think the one that is frequently cited is the area around the brakes and the brake ducts, the so-called keg tins, which surround the discs and duct the air. It is an area where probably the number of physical molds that are required to make those parts have doubled or even tripled over the past couple of years, because the parts are so intricate. We now all have very similar systems and it is very expensive. A lot of the aerodynamic testing goes into that area. It is probably not an area of performance differentiation, and that is probably an area where we could do something which reduces costs.

“I think there is general agreement that the gearbox is an area where we have all now migrated to so-called quick shift gearboxes. I suspect we have all got slightly different mechanisms inside but, again, it is not a performance differentiator.

“Another idea that is being worked on is the center of gravity of the car. Weight reduction or specifying a weight target is one thing, but when we spend literally hundreds of thousands of dollars to move weight from slightly higher up to slightly lower down and then add tungsten on the bottom of the car, again It is somewhat wasteful and again the general opinion among the technical directors and from Ross (Brawn), who is running that group, is that a lot can be done in that area.
Honda's Nick Fry (LAT photo) » More Photos

“The power train, the engine, is an area where I know there is more controversy. I think we all do feel that we could migrate to a lower-cost power train. The V8 19,000rpm engine we have at the moment is hugely expensive, up to about 300,000 euro [$406k] per unit. They are immensely expensive and going to a different type of engine, maybe a four-cylinder engine, would be cheaper with all the environmental technologies hung onto that. I think certainly from the Honda side, and I suspect from some of the other manufacturers’ sides, we would like to preserve the ability to design and
make that engine as it is part of our brand identity, but making the specification a lot more prescriptive, making it a lot cheaper, is something I think that many of us would support.

John Howett: “I don’t really want to go into specifics. I think they are unique to each team. I think the meeting which we have been invited to was really following the meeting between Luca di Montezemolo and Max Mosley. I think that the teams have a lot of ideas to actually save money but at the same time not destroy the core DNA or value of Formula 1. I think that given a constructive discussion and hopefully, shall we say using the current environment of “financial crisis’, people could take a political advantage and try to apply unnecessary pressure. Hopefully for once we can put politics behind these discussions and really focus on the facts, the real issues and then we will find, I am sure, good solutions.

“I mean, fundamentally, I am sure teams can say without changing anything, which is what we do regularly by good value-added engineering, actually reducing production processes by standardizing tooling, you can make massive savings. That is one issue which absolutely has no impact whatsoever on even the current regulation. If you look at it, this coming year, ironically, we are faced with a totally new aerodynamics package, which means the concept of the car changes completely and we integrate KERS, so we are facing, if you like, an environment where cost saving is relevant but all the regulatory changes are technically forcing cost upwards. My position would be, there are a lot of concrete ideas but we need to have a cohesive, focused, unpolitical discussion using facts and we will find a simple solution.”

Mario Thiessen: “Not much to add really. In my view the ongoing discussions under the umbrella of FOTA are very constructive, the most constructive I have seen in Formula 1, because it is clear to all of the teams that we have to do something, we have to achieve something and it only works if we come to a joint proposal. There are several technical working groups, one for the car and another one on the power train or the engine itself, and the commercial and sporting working group – lots of good ideas. I am sure within a few weeks or months we will be able to come up with proposals that will really make a difference to what we see today in terms of costs, in terms of improving the spectacle and the commercial viability of Formula 1.

“We could talk for hours about specific areas. As I said, the engine working group, in my view is making very good progress which wasn’t possible in the past. They have framed the concept of a future engine, the next-generation engine, they are thinking through how we could get there and in what time, could we take any intermediate steps on the current engine, like extending its life to three race weekends in order to help the independent teams. Things like this. On the car side there are lots of ideas as well. Personally, I was a bit surprised that the idea of a budget cap was buried so early this year. I think there would be potential. And on the commercial and sporting side there are ideas as well.”

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