 Mosley is predicting Hamilton will get his hands on a second drivers' trophy |
Motorsport boss Max Mosley has tipped Lewis Hamilton to win a second Formula One world drivers' title in 2009. F1 commercial boss Bernie Ecclestone said last month he wanted Ferrari's Felipe Massa to win after narrowly missing out to the McLaren man in 2008. But Mosley said: "If someone said 'here's �100, you have to put it on a driver' you'd probably put it on Lewis. "But it might be someone unexpected like [BMW Sauber driver Robert] Kubica or [Renault's Fernando] Alonso." Mosley - the president of motorsport's governing body the FIA - said the huge rule changes being introduced this season meant it was very difficult to predict which teams would be the most competitive when the season starts in Australia on 29 March. But he said he expected the season to come down in the end to the usual battle between McLaren and Ferrari.  | 606: DEBATE |
And he added that he thought Ferrari were still recovering from the huge leadership change at the team following Michael Schumacher's retirement at the end of 2006. In the space of a year, team boss Jean Todt, technical director Ross Brawn and chief designer Rory Byrne all left Ferrari. "McLaren have done a very good job over the winter - everything indicates that," Mosley said. "And Ferrari are still getting their act together after a very big management change, whereas I don't think the management change at McLaren is as big - there is more continuity." That is a reference to the decision of Ron Dennis to step down as McLaren team principal on 1 March and hand over to long-time deputy Martin Whitmarsh. Mosley made his remarks at a pre-season media lunch in London, where he took the opportunity to restate his determination to continue his drive for significant cost-cutting in F1. A series of measures was agreed with the teams in December, but Mosley wants to go much further and reduce teams' budgets to about 50m Euros (�44m) a year in 2010.  Ferrari were the first team to unveil its 2009 car but Mosley says the team is still struggling after a restructure |
Currently, the richest teams are spending as much as six or seven times that amount. Mosley said the global credit crunch meant F1 was facing its "biggest crisis since I became involved" in the early 1970s. And he said "employing 1,000 people to put two cars on the grid 17 times a year is ridiculous". He said he wanted to bring budgets down to the point where a team could be competitive on little more than the prize and appearance money provided by Ecclestone's companies. "The teams agree in principle," he said, "but they don't want it to happen that quickly." He said discussions with Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo - the chairman of the F1 Teams' Association (Fota) - were "constant and constructive". But he insisted that several other teams could follow Honda out of F1 in the coming months if nothing was done. The Japanese giant pulled out of F1 in December, citing falling car sales and the problems of the global economy. Mosley put the chances of a buyer emerging to allow the Honda team to race under a new name this year at "about 70%". But he added that the current high costs meant it was too difficult for new teams to enter F1. He said a new team from the United States was interested in racing next year - but only if costs were cut dramatically. "We're trying to make it easy for independent teams to come in but we need to get the costs down quickly," Mosley said. "I don't think anyone [else] will stop if we reduce costs. If we can arrange it so F1 is profitable, it's very unlikely the [road-car manufacturers] would stop - and the scope for getting costs down is huge." | F1 should be solving difficult problems that are relevant to the real world |
Mosley wants to introduce a number of standard parts, particularly in suspension and gearboxes, but to leave the rules open for innovation in other areas. He is particularly keen for F1 teams to focus their energies on furthering the understanding of the kinetic energy recovery systems (kers) that are being introduced this season. These systems - which are similar to those used in so-called hybrid road cars - harness energy that would have been lost during braking and re-apply it when a car is accelerating. "F1 should be solving difficult problems that are relevant to the real world," Mosley said. Mosley has previously said he wanted to step down as FIA president when his current term expires in October - but said on Thursday that he was strongly considering running for another four years. "One has to say it's interesting at the moment and to walk away would be to leave it in a state of uncertainty which wouldn't be satisfactory," said Mosley, who has run the sport since 1991. "To be frank, an awful lot of people are saying 'you need to stay because of the situation'. "But 18 years - and it would be four more - is a long time. Do I want to? "If you stay in something too long, you get a bit stale. If we get a lot of the problems solved between now and then it would be tempting to go." He said he expected to introduce new rules aimed at securing his desired cost cuts by the spring - "but whether they are agreed is another matter".
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