Let's see from the beginning of the year it has been Double-Diffuser saga, Lewis Hamilton cheating scandal, McLaren almost beng suspended for few races, Ron Dennis quitting F1 and now FIA vs FOTA due to the budget caps. And not to mention we have had a fantastic start to the season with the Big Guns struggling and teams like Brawn, Red Bull and Toyota rocking the motorsport world.
Well the answer to the question will unfortunately have to be no since we have been embroiled in controversy almost every Formula One season. I think with the recession this year there is more emphasis to cut costs, more than ever before which is leading to this contoversy. This has been caused by Max Mosley and the FIA looking to have a budget cap in place, to cut costs and invite new players into the fold.
Max Mosley's proposed $40m budget cap sounds preposterous to me. Firstly, yes we have to cut costs but at the same time this is Formula One - the pinnacle of motorsports, the dream of almost every adrenalin filled male in the world. This is not IRL or the old F3000. Is it unfair that some teams have higher budgets? Yes that might be the case but Renault managed to win the Championship in 2005-06 with probably half the budget of both Ferrari and McLaren. Actually we have just have to look at this year to see how the team with one of the lowest budgets are leading the Championship.
Secondly how are these budgets going ot be tracked? Not only will it be hard to keep a track of but also teams will not want to show their accounting books to the FIA. Leading teams including Ferrari, BMW, Toyota, Renault and Red Bull have all threatened to pull out unless there is a change in the budget cap. Now Ferrari is heading to court seeking an injunction over the 2010 regulations, which will be heard today.
The next few couple of months will be interesting to see how this pans out. But for now we are heading towards the most glamourous GP of the calendar, the streets of Monaco. This is gonna be anyone's guess and my next entry will let you know who I think will be battlng for the win this time around.
