Despite his belief that there will be ten teams on the grid in Melbourne next March, FIA president, Max Mosley has once again warned that costs must cut.

Talking in Shanghai, Mosley warned that the lesson of Jaguar Racing should be heeded, and that if F1 is to survive, let alone prosper, the teams and manufacturers must agree to significantly cut costs.

"Even the most introspective Formula One team principal must be beginning to realise that there are a few problems," he told reporters. "Manufacturers come when it suits them and go when it suits them. Formula One is not a manufacturer's core business.

"Formula One is Eddie Jordan's core business, not Ford's core business," he continued, "and if we want to be sure we've got people around we've got to think of the Eddie Jordans, Paul Stoddarts and Saubers."

Clearly, Mosley, who used to race, before forming the extremely successful, and unique, March company, believes that many of those currently involved in F1 are 'playing at it', the ultimate in 'big boys toys'.

"Recently they (the manufacturers) have tended to pour money in, in a way that I think actually damages the sport," he said. "When you see the boss of a big company on the pit wall, with his headphones and a silly jacket, you know that there's trouble because they are doing at 60 what we all did at 30.

"The difference is that they are running a huge company and when we wanted the wonderful new gearbox, we had to go to the bank, and the bank manager wouldn't lend us the money. But they are sitting at the top of a huge company and they can just write out a cheque.

"That's fine for a year or two or three," he admitted, "but eventually somebody else in that big company says 'Hang on a minute, this is completely and utterly mad. What we are spending here is a huge proportion of our entire publicity budget. And you haven't won any races. And by the way, that engine you're spending 200 million euros on, it blew up in front of a world television audience.' If you're a sensible person looking after the money of that company, you're going to say no. And then sooner or later they stop. It's all just so obvious and inevitable."

Of course, Mosley does have a point, however it could also be argued that taxpayers and politicians might wonder why long-term deals are being done with Bernie Ecclestone and his companies, why hundreds of millions are being paid to build circuits and then even more millions are paid for the rights to host a Grand Prix.

China, as an example is locked into a seven-year deal that is though to be costing the organizers somewhere between £25m - £30m a year, that's in addition to the estimate £250m that it cost to build the circuit. Do the maths.

Back to Mosley's comments, and this is nothing that we haven't been saying for some time. The trouble is, much like football clubs that now spend £20m on one player, when only a couple of years ago an entire team could be bought for less. F1 teams have grown used to the 'good life', and having vast fortunes to throw at every problem.

Although Ron and Frank started out small, they are now fabulously wealthy - are their any poor team owners? - controlling empires that reflect their massive egos, these guys no longer do small.

Although Mosley wants to see costs cut, it is no longer possible to simply take a step backwards, to do so would risk ruin. Furthermore, who else is going to have access to the means to provide the massive financial bond required?

Sadly, F1 is going to have to experience some serious pain before it learns its lesson.