Todt dismisses blanket budget restraints

Jean Todt is settling into his role of FIA president and like his predecessor, Max Mosley, has clear views regarding the direction he believes that Formula One should take. While the former Ferrari team principal believes that costs remain a huge issue for the sport to grapple with, he is not in favour of a blanket restriction on spending.

Todt told La Gazetto dello Sport that reducing costs could actually be detrimental to the sport as a whole. A standardised aerodynamic package would plainly not be conducive to great racing at both Monza and Monte Carlo. Another example centres around the relative cost of products and services. Labour and infrastructure projects in China cost a fraction of similar projects in other parts of the world and therefore pure limits on expenditure would penalise many nations.

He also believes that technology is important for the sport but as it stands, KERS – technology pushed hard by Mosley last year - is firmly on the back burner after the Formula One Teams’ Association agreed that they systems would not be used this year in order to reduce costs. “The future is linked to new technologies,” Todt told the Italian publication. “Banning KERS is not acceptable just because it’s expensive. The teams are committed to finding ways to make it economic.”

Regarding the subject of a team opting to miss potentially three races this year and beyond first publicised by FOM president Bernie Ecclestone, Todt confirmed that such an agreement is in place, but interestingly, the provision does not apply to consecutive events.

With USF1 and Campos Meta reportedly struggling to make the field in Bahrain, Todt made clear that it is up to the FIA to decide which, if any, team could join the series following Ecclestone’s public display of support for the new StefanGP project.