Formula One teams cut costs
Formula One has reached a milestone in its effort to cut costs with its recent Resource Restriction Agreement (RRA) in Singapore. Autosport reports that F1 teams have come to a comprehensive agreement
in light of the need to balance the budget, successfully completing a venture which was on the brink of failure last year.
The Formula One Teams’ Association (FOTA) managed to seal an agreement that will run until 2017, outlining the new restrictions on spending. But the victory has not been without its troubles, given that
several teams were opposed to the previous outlines, in which they felt the RRA had too much control. But this year, teams and organizations have both made significant headway.
“We made fantastic progress actually,” commented FOTA chairman and McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh. “I think the teams have worked together and found great compromise and, during the course of the meeting,
we signed an extension that puts seven years on the Resource Restriction Agreement, which further stabilises the sport.”
Whitmarsh continued, “We signed a heads of agreement which has gone a long way to improving it, extending the RRA, making further reductions and closing the known loopholes. And there is an obligation
within the agreement that if anyone knows of a loophole, or subsequently learn[s] of them, that they declare it now or do something about it. I think it was a good step forward in terms of trying to manage the resources in F1 and trying to create stability,
and an improvement on that approach. It took compromise from all of the F1 teams to achieve that, and I think a week ago not many people would have predicted that we would have been able to achieve that. So all credit to the F1 teams for being very sensible,
co-operative and working with a spirit that was so important to get such an agreement in place.”
Whitmarsh’s comments are echoed by Renault boss Eric Boullier, who expressed his enthusiasm at the direction that the talks have moved in. “I am very delighted that we have done such a move,” he explained,
“Because it is a success for FOTA and finally we could sign something, instead of the meetings just being a forum. The decision taken last year [with the original RRA] was maybe in a special context with manufacturers threatening to break away for another
championship. The RRA in its old version could even have damaged the sport by being too radical, and I was keen to change the slope and extending it – and why not? We know we have to enter into a transition period. Everyone has done a reasonable job and I
am happy we have signed this agreement.”
The details of the current agreement are yet to be released.
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