Martin Whitmarsh, Ex McLaren team principal, had been invited to Formula 1 to dictate the cost reduction in the sport.
He has been asked to join as a consultant to Formula 1 World Championship governing body, Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile. His primary role will require to help the governing body to define “regulations for fair and sustainable competition”.
The 59-year-old British businessman had been away from the sport since he had agreed to part ways with McLaren “amicably” when Ron Dennis took control of the team in 2014 as chief executive officer.
Formula One Teams Association team had introduced the resource restriction agreement for cost control in Formula 1. The now-defunct team that had attempted to cap the budget was then joined by the Whitmash as the chairman.
Liberty Media, American company that owns Formula 1 since they bought its commercial rights, is looking forward to increase the competition in the sport. In order to close the gap between teams, the Liberty Media is keen to cap the budget for F1 teams.
Ross Brawn, F 1 sporting boss, is working with FIA on the issue of introducing cost limit for the teams.
But Jean Tody, the FIA president who had worked at Ferrari with Brawn for 10 years from 1996-2006, says that introducing budget limit might not work on its own.
Todt said: “I don’t believe in a cost cap. I believe we can have a global package in the regulations.
“I am not an engineer but I have been aggressive to our engineers on it in different capacities. At Ferrari, I discussed it with Ross. Now it is something I discuss with [FIA F1 director] Charlie Whiting. So far I have never got a solution that really answers the problem. But I believe it should be a combined work.
“If we all agree F1 should be more affordable, everyone should work to make rules to allow the costs to come down. It is easy to say but so far I have never got a proper answer.”
Whitmarsh had worked for Olympic yachtsman Ben Ainslie’s America’s Cup challenge after being released from McLaren. He then moved to advisory role in November.
FIA all-electric single-seater series, Formula E, global advisory board also listed Whitmarsh as one of the members.
