Force India welcome cost cutting

(GETTY IMAGES)

Force India's director of business affairs Ian Phillips has welcomed plans by Formula One bosses to reduce costs in response to the global credit crunch.

FIA president Max Mosley said earlier this week teams could not afford to survive on billionaires' handouts and must become more cost-effective if the sport is to survive.

The world governing body will meet all the members of the Formula One Teams' Association after the Chinese Grand Prix on October 19 to discuss ways of reducing costs.

And Phillips is fully supportive of any action which will ease the financial burden, especially on the smaller, independent teams like Force India.

"A redressing of the balance has been overdue for some time," he said.

"Probably for five years we have been overspending and it is time to pull back. The credit crunch has brought it to a head.

"I work for an independent team. It has had four owners in four years and each one of those has not been able to fulfil their desires financially in Formula One and have got out.

"But I think things have pretty much balanced out now."

Phillips also praised Mosley, whose private life has been in the news more than his professional dealings in the last year having sued the News of the World over lurid allegations they made against him, for taking a stand in trying to safeguard the sport.

"He wants to leave a legacy in motorsport that is not related to his personal life," he told Radio 5 Live.

"If he carries it through what he says he is going to do I have no doubt he will leave a legacy."