London: Formula One's governing body has rejected a vote by a majority of the teams entered in the 2008 championship who want to scrap a controversial 'freeze' on engine development.
International Automobile Federation president Max Mosley wrote to team principals on Monday setting out the FIA's position.
"By entering the championship, a team accepts the regulations as published and, equally importantly, is entitled to rely on them when deciding whether or not to enter," Mosley said.
"A major factor in deciding whether or not to enter is the cost of competing. No responsible governing body could agree to rule changes which increase the cost of competing once entries have been accepted," he said
"There can therefore be no question of abandoning engine homologation or making any other change to the 2008 regulations which would significantly increase the budgets of the teams which have agreed to compete," he added.
A meeting of Formula One's sporting working group, with representatives of all 11 current teams as well as 2008 entrant Prodrive, voted against engine homologation (the so-called freeze) at a meeting before Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix.
"Every vote was carried by a majority of eight or nine of the 12," said Honda team boss Nick Fry of that meeting, adding that he expected the FIA to ratify the vote.
Mosley's letter, likely to go down badly with leading manufacturers close to concluding a new commercial deal with Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone, made clear that the teams would not sway the FIA.
Without a freeze, he said, "the engine suppliers and car manufacturers involved in Formula One would continue to spend collectively in excess of 1 billion euros each year on development."
"This blatant waste of money is clearly unsustainable, particularly when some of the enormous costs involved are being passed on to the independent teams."
Mosley said the FIA would listen to and implement 'constructive proposals' for improvement to the rules if budgets were not increased and safety not compromised.
Teams had to sign up for the 2008 championship by the end of March, with Prodrive winning the right to become the 12th entrant.
Ferrari boss Jean Todt had said on Sunday that it was clear to him that they had all signed up for the championship under a given set of rules that were fixed.
"If you read the rules for 2008, the engine rules are already written and it's a freezing of the engine for 2008, 2009 and 2010," he said.
Prodrive's David Richards, a former BAR and Benetton boss, said last month that "on the basis of the new regulations being proposed by the FIA, we believe the time is now right for us to take this next step (and enter Formula One)."
Comments
0 comment