JH: I think that the danger is that a knee-jerk reaction could be catastrophic. In the end, if we have pressure, we will be told that’s the budget and we will survive. In the end, I suppose there are three core drivers of the cost: one is manpower, second is investment which fundamentally we have to pay for because it’s capitalised and has to be depreciated and the third is the material used, what we actually use for each race. Very simplistically, if we get told this is the budget for competing this year, next year we will compete and we will do the best available job that we can within that. Obviously the social issue is what will happen to the motor sport infrastructure and it goes beyond teams. The UK, in particular, I think has a multi-million dollar motor sport industry which could be destroyed and that, I think should be something that people do worry about and take into consideration, but in the end, simplistically, if Toyota tell us that’s the budget, we will operate at that budget and make the best professional decisions to handle that.

NF: I see this in the same way as you would address the problem in any other business. It needs a range of actions, some are short term, some are medium term and some are long term. You divide those up: some things are impossible in the short run. It’s not possible to design a new engine in six months, that’s in the medium or long term, that’s two years. People do have employment contracts and we have to respect that, that’s another medium term one but I do feel that whilst we shouldn’t panic, we need to do things for the short term and that means next year. It’s difficult to say otherwise when you have five thousand people laid off recently at a car factory in France. How can that manufacturer turn to its employees and say it’s not going to do anything. There’s a requirement for some of the Formula One teams to have instant action. You’ve only got to look at the accounts of some of the Formula One teams to see losses over the last couple of years and that needs to be addressed. The bank manager is not going to lend any more money. I agree completely with what’s been said: we shouldn’t panic, we shouldn’t do anything which is going to harm something which is very successful but on the other hand that doesn’t mean do nothing. It means you’ve got to do a bit of everything and you’ve got to start now, and I think that’s the message, rightly so, and we’ve got to come up with the appropriate response.

Q: (James Allen – ITV) Question for Mario: with these spec engines that they’re talking about now, where you’re all given a set of plans and you go away and build the engine, how does that fit in with the idea of controlling the power, however much power you can get out of a fixed unit of fuel which was the idea that Max (Mosley) had in the early part of the summer? Is that still part of this plan or has that been moved off the agenda now?
MT: You mean the plan of the engine working group or the plan of the FIA?

Q: (James Allen – ITV) The plan that’s being discussed at the moment between the teams with the FIA to have a spec engine, a spec drive train to bring the costs down. How does the technology of getting a performance differentiated by how much power you can get out of a fixed unit of fuel, how does that sit with having a spec engine?
MT: I’m still not sure I really understand the question.

JH: I don’t think there has been any discussion between the FIA and teams of a spec engine. There’s a lot of speculation and there’s been, I think, some allusions in the press releases towards that, and I think a lot of the manufacturers are concerned about having a spec engine, because one of the core interests is at least having some differentiation in the power unit. And also you have to look at probably the current cost of the engine could be replaced by the cost of KERS. If you look at road car technology, a lot of the current and ecological developments are coming from the engine, not necessarily only – shall we say – a hybrid add-on. So direct fuel injection, multiple injectors per cylinder, lightweight materials, a lot of which are banned from Formula One. So I think we need to have a serious discussion without politics between the professionals to try to find a compromise which supports the small teams and actually gives the right result for the manufacturers and I think that can be achieved.