Q: Again, I would like to ask you about the recent economic crisis. The situation is very difficult to predict; how quickly do you have to react to this economic situation? You have been talking about cost-cutting and now it looks as if you’ve made a practical step, but is the regulation about the long term future quickly enough? Will you have to make a change a bit earlier than you expected?
Mario Theissen: “We have heard right now that Formula 1 is a very strong operation and it’s a big operation and it’s very much technology-driven, so that means there is no need to panic, that’s message number one. Message number two: you cannot change things of this technical complexity overnight, so we need to take a reasonable approach, an approach which satisfies all the needs including the need for all the teams involved to cut costs. On the other hand it has to be a viable route which means we cannot come up with a low cost engine within a few months. This would require huge additional expenses on the manufacturer side, so that means we have to look at a certain period of time and at a combination of measures which can lead us to the final target which is do-able in the short term and then prepare for the long-term future in a commercially viable way.”
John Howett: “I think that the danger is that a knee-jerk reaction could be catastrophic. In the end, if we have pressure, we will be told that’s the budget and we will survive. In the end, I suppose there are three core drivers of the cost: one is manpower; second is investment, which fundamentally we have to pay for because it’s capitalized and has to be depreciated; and the third is the material used, what we actually use for each race. Very simplistically, if we get told this is the budget for competing this year, next year we will compete and we will do the best available job that we can within that.
“Obviously, the social issue is what
will happen to the motorsport infrastructure and it goes beyond teams. The UK, in particular, I think has a multi-million dollar motorsport industry which could be destroyed and that, I think should be something that people do worry about and take into consideration, but in the end, simplistically, if Toyota tell us that’s the budget, we will operate at that budget and make the best professional decisions to handle that.”
Nick Fry: “I see this in the same way as you would address the problem in any other business. It needs a range of actions, some are short term, some are medium term and some are long term. You divide those up: some things are impossible in the short run. It’s not possible to design a new engine in six months, that’s in the medium or long term, that’s two years. People do have employment contracts and we have to respect that, that’s another medium term one, but I do feel that while we shouldn’t panic, we need to do things for the short term – and that means next year. It’s difficult to say otherwise when you have five thousand people laid off recently at a car factory in France. How can that manufacturer turn to its employees and say it’s not going to do anything?
“There’s a requirement for some of the Formula 1 teams to have instant action. You’ve only got to look at the accounts of some of the Formula 1 teams to see losses over the last couple of years and that needs to be addressed. The bank manager is not going to lend any more money. I agree completely with what’s been said: we shouldn’t panic, we shouldn’t do anything which is going to harm something which is very successful – but on the other hand, that doesn’t mean do nothing. It means you’ve got to do a bit of everything and you’ve got to start now, and I think that’s the message, rightly so, and we’ve got to come up with the appropriate response.”
