A Ford engine in a Ferrari, you musta be joking

F1 to hold landmark budget talks


The teams have until Thursday to adopt the standard engine idea

Formula One teams will meet motorsport boss Max Mosley in Monte Carlo on Wednesday for landmark talks that could change the face of the sport.

FIA chief Mosley wants the teams to use a standard engine and gearbox from 2010 to help cut their costs by up to 80%.
The support of four teams will be enough to push the proposal through, the FIA says, and it claims there has been a "very positive response" so far.
Yet BBC Sport understands the teams will oppose the proposal.
They formed the Formula One Teams Association (Fota) in July to counterbalance the power of Mosley and F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone and are determined to present a united front. While Fota is committed to dramatically cutting the operating costs of the teams, it is opposed to the idea of one manufacturer, Cosworth, providing a standard engine for all the teams.
Fota will put forward its own set of cost-cutting proposals at the meeting on Wednesday.

Mosley said: "A lot of the teams would like a base engine, but the manufacturers may also make an offer which could be interesting, so we will see how it develops.
"It would be better if they accepted the proposal, but you cannot pre-judge what other people come up with.
"They might come up with something completely new that we haven't thought of, so one has to keep an open mind.
"Today (Wednesday) is make-your-mind-up time, but I don't yet know what they are going to put forward.
"If it looks good, then that's fine. I just want to make sure we are not going to wander into a catastrophic situation without knowing what we are doing."
Mosley has given the teams a deadline of 1600 GMT on Thursday to sign up to the idea of a standard "powertrain" of engine and transmission.
The FIA issued a statement on Tuesday, claiming: "There has been a very positive response from the F1 teams regarding our engine proposals.

"It would be inappropriate to comment on the reaction of any individual team, or give further details, in advance of Friday's [FIA] World Council meeting."
This led to reports that Renault was particularly keen to adopt the standard powertrain.
Yet the French team responded by issuing its own statement, saying it "would like to state that the positions of the team and Renault are in complete accordance to those of Fota.
"We would like to point out that neither (team boss) Mr Briatore nor Renault have spoken to the press regarding this matter."
A complete powertrain - with an engine supplied by Cosworth and gearbox from Xtrac and Ricardo - would cost the teams an initial up-front payment of £1.68m.
The teams could build their own engines to the same specification as the Cosworth, or continue to use their existing units, but on a par in terms of performance.
That would be followed by a fee of £5.4m per season over the three years of the agreement, running from 2010 through to 2012.
Such a figure is around 10% of what teams have spent on engines in recent years.
Ferrari and Toyota have threatened to quit the sport if a standard engine is introduced. Yet all the teams are committed to dramatically reducing their operating costs, particularly in the light of Japanese manufacturer Honda pulling out of the sport last week. The World Motor Sport Council will meet in Monaco on Friday to ratify any of the proposals that are agreed on Wednesday in Monte Carlo.

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