JUNE 15, 2009

The FIA responds

The FIA has responded to the statements put out on Friday by FOTA and the ACEA, the European car manufacturers' association. The federation said it was surprised at the ACEA's rejection of the FIA cost-cutting measures.

The FIA has responded to the statements put out on Friday by FOTA and the ACEA, the European car manufacturers' association. The federation said it was surprised at the ACEA's rejection of the FIA cost-cutting measures.

The FIA said that the potential saving are "not immaterial: reducing the costs of the five manufacturers from the ‚400 million to ‚500 million recently reported by Ferrari to even a level of ‚200 million would release ‚1 billion to ‚1.5 billion a year back into the core businesses".

The FIA says that Porsche did not support ACEA™s F1 resolution and has instructed the ACEA secretariat to make this clear.

The federation said that a meeting late last week with FOTA bosses was very positive and that "the objectives of FOTA and the FIA on cost reduction were now very close".

The FIA says that it believed it had participated in a very constructive meeting with a large measure of agreement.

"The FIA was therefore astonished to learn that certain FOTA members not present at the meeting have falsely claimed that nothing was agreed and that the meeting had been a waste of time. There is clearly an element in FOTA which is determined to prevent any agreement being reached regardless of the damage this may cause to the sport."