Lotus team co-owner Gerard Lopez supports RRA and calls for its adherence – Formula 1 news
Lotus team co-owner Gerard Lopez is in favour of Formula 1 pressing on to stricter Resource Restriction Agreement policies.
Lopez believes that the sport can very much be made cost effective in order to relieve the financial burden for smaller teams, while making the sport more welcoming to new entrants.
He said that there is no reason why the FIA cannot enforce a cap on costs. Although not all teams agree to the notion, Lopez strongly believes in it. The 2011 year saw teams quit RRA over issues regarding handling the costs.
Red Bull, Ferrari, and Sauber were three teams to quit FOTA over issues with the RRA. All three teams had issues with lack of transparencies of how the teams spent their finances and the limited amount of testing allowed.
Mercedes Principal Ross Brawn came in defence of FOTA and requested the teams to rethink their decision as FOTA is very important for the management of the sport.
Teams believe that under the agreement it is next to impossible to make profits but Lopez does not think that is the case, “I hate to say it, but I don't think it is. It's probably as close as you will get to being neutral because, either you have a very
strict Resource Restriction Agreement, which we hope will be put in place and in which case you could [be profitable], but if not you're racing for sponsors and racing for points and racing for money at the end of the day - whatever you get you invest to try
to make your car faster. That is kind of a conundrum, a very difficult question to answer.”
Still Lopez said that the main priority for teams should be cutting costs rather than looking for transparencies. He explained that it is not a matter of numbers in terms of what should be allowed financially. It is more an issue of deciding what it is that
the teams can agree on and then stick to it.
It will be very important for teams to come to an agreement sooner as the sport will be hurt if a situation like this lingers on for too long.
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