New rules costing more for Sauber
Although some of the new regulations organized by Max Mosley last Wednesday were aimed at reducing some of the ever spiralling costs in the Formula One championship, in some cases they will work to the exact opposite of what the FIA are hoping to achieve.
auber Petronas' technical director, Willy Rampf has explained to Italian newspaper, the Gazetta Dello Sport, that the new rules banning car to pit telemetry has cost the Swiss based squad a lot of money, despite Mosley's pleas that it will help keep costs down. We were told the same thing by a member of the team when we asked for their views on the new rules as it appears as if the team had spent well over a million Swiss Francs (1.3 to be exact) on a state of the art two way telemetry system, only to now have it rendered useless.
They will not be the only team in this particular, or another similar, position as one of the main ideas behind Formula One has been to develop new and innovative ways to take some big steps on a previous year's performances. With 2003 contenders already developed and ready to be unveiled, two already on the track in new livery (BAR and Toyota) the budget for the coming season has already been accounted for.