Hello F1 fans, here is the future of Formula 1!

For 2009 at least (this is the BMW Sauber F1 racecar that is currently undergoing testing) and judging by the way that things have gone so far these past few months, F1 may not last for too long.

Poor Super Aguri got the ball rolling (or stop rolling) when they quit F1 after just four races this season. And I am sure most of you would have found out by now that Honda has pulled out of F1, citing money (or should I say, the lack of it) as the final straw that broke the proverbial camel's back.

Forget about the persistent rumours that Mexican billionaire, Carlos Slim Helu, is about to buy the Honda Racing F1 team over - that is not the important issue here. Unless every billionaire in the world's top 10 list decides that they have enough spare moolah to add an F1 team to their list of acquisitions, the issue of costs must be addressed as soon as possible if F1 is not to go the way of the Dodo.

It has been estimated that an F1 team spends an average of $300 million a season which can be roughly broken down into 4 categories - salaries, factory, car and travel.

And I believe that a certain amount of prudency in each area will amount to millions saved.

Let's start with salaries.

A typical factory employs 600 staff and with salaries averaging $100,000, this amounts to $60 million. A staff cut of about 20% which I am sure will not affect productivity at all will translate to $12 million more in the kitty. Mind you, I have not even begun to calculate how much this will bring down travel, food and accommodation costs as each team will visit 17 different countries next year.

Next up is the car.

The bigger teams (read: Ferrari, McLaren and BMW) makes up to six monocoques each year, with each costing as much as $280,000 each. Based on major accidents that each team encountered last year, that resulted in the replacement of monocoques, each team can comfortably get by on just three - this will result in an instant saving of over $1 million. 

The FIA's new ruling of on engines and gearboxes will go a long way in cutting costs but I would like to also see that rules are put in place to reduce the number of wing and underfloor configurations that each team is allowed to use. Presently, each team uses about 10 different wings alone. I propose that each team is allowed to change the wings and underfloor twice in a season and they can choose to do so whenever they want to.

This will also make for interesting spectating as each team will then have to decide where to compromise - run a high-downforce wing setting for the first part of the season which will result in the car being slower on low-downforce circuits, and vice versa.

Last but not least, make the teams use the same components i.e. same model from the same manufacturer, that is not easily visible to the eye. Clutches, brake calipers and wheel hubs are examples. Best of all, this can be implemented immediately.With these measures in place, the cost of building, running and modifying a F1 racecar for an entire season will amount to about $25 million - down from $75 million, which was the average cost in 2008.

With these measures in place, running costs will be slashed by at least 30%, which will go a long way in sustaining F1...for the next few years at least.

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