If all of this seems unduly negative, I write it only because many people in Formula One seem to think the supply of money is limitless, that pockets are always going to be deep and cutting costs in any meaningful sense is not ever to be taken seriously. But they need to wake up and look at what's happening all around them. The world of business is in turmoil and that will filter down to Formula One, helped only by a few months' delay as the ripple effect takes hold.

Max Mosley's urgent call for a cut in costs illustrates that, whatever else has happened to him in the last few months, taking his eye off the ball wasn't one of them. The need to address Formula One's costs has been a requirement for years, but today it has become a necessity if the sport is to survive the turmoil of the world's financial markets and uncertainties facing the international business community. The last 20 years of excess in the banking sector, using credit to leverage business around the world and thus financing a period of unparalleled growth and wealth, have in the main been good years for Formula One. That particular party has just come to an end, in spectacular and unprecedented style.

Watching Lehman Brother's former CEO Richard Fuld Jr being grilled in Washington last Monday, explaining how the 158-year-old investment bank collapsed, was to gain a brutal insight into the crisis which Formula One needs to be ready to address. Considering that Lehman owned just under 17% of the stock in Formula One's parent company, Fuld's testimony showed how even the kingpins of banking had got it terribly wrong. A man who had taken home USD$300m in pay over the last 8 years was being held accountable, and it was a sorry sight.

If anyone in Formula One thinks none of this will affect the sport in a significant way, they should think again. If not for the benefit of Formula One, then for the people who work in it. From Sir Frank Williams downwards.

Mark Gallagher
mark@pitpass.com