FORMULA One teams are going to have to drastically scale back their spending if the sport is to survive, the president of motor sport’s governing body told The Northern Echo yesterday.

Max Mosley, the president of the FIA, was speaking in Newcastle yesterday following Honda’s decision to pull out of Formula One.

He said: “The top teams spend £200m and employ 700 to 1,000 people just to put two cars on the grid 18 times a year.

“Even in good economic times it’s obviously not sustainable, but now in this credit crunch it is out of the question.

“We have to get the costs down to the level where the TV money, plus modest sponsorship, is greater than the cost of running the team.

That would mean a total annual bill of £30m-£40m.”

He said this could be done without fans noticing a depreciation in the quality of racing, as cars could end up going only a second a lap slower for a great reduction in cost.

For instance, he said $1,200 wheelnuts imported from California were used for one race only and then thrown away, while a £10m gearbox could be replaced with one costing £1m weighing just 5kg more.

He said he had been expecting one major team to withdraw, and Honda might be followed by another.

“All those big car companies are in trouble, some worse trouble than Honda,”

he said, although last night Toyota committed itself to the sport.

Honda’s departure means there are now only 18 cars scheduled to take part in the opening race of 2009 in Australia on March 29.

Mosley said 16 was the minimum number of cars required to make the sport competitive.

But he sounded confident that a buyer could be found for Honda, which could be snapped up for a bargain price, and the cost reductions could attract new teams.

“You can imagine that a F1 entreprenur will take it on,”

he said. “If we play our cards right we can get the number of cars back up to 20, or even increase it.

“We can’t do much in 2009, although we’ll try, but by 2010 that £30m-£40m target will be do-able.”

Mosley, who has been awarded an honorary doctorate in civil law by Northumbria University, was on a business trip to the North-East. He was staying in the Marriott Hotel in Gosforth Park where his business associate, the former North-East Labour MEP Alan Donnelly, was involved in the North-East Economic Forum.

Mosley dismissed Bernie Ecclestone’s suggestion that rather than the first eight finishers getting points, only the top three would get gold, silver and bronze medals.

He said: “That’s on the backburner. We are on this ocean liner and its sinking.

Some people are talking about the colour of the wallpaper in the state rooms. I think it’s a question of getting a seat on the lifeboat.”

Last night Honda Racing chief executive Nick Fry confirmed three overseas parties have expressed an interest in a potential buy-out in the team, most likely from the Middle East.

“If there is no takeover, a 700-strong work-force at the team’s headquarters in Brackley will lose their jobs.

Driver Jenson Button’s future must also be in doubt.

After nine years in F1, he faces being without a drive for next season. His only other option appears to be with Toro Rosso, which is the sole team yet to confirm its line-up for 2009.

The 28-year-old said of Honda’s pull-out: “It came as much of a shock to me as everyone else, and the first couple of hours were the most painful.

“But after that I thought, ‘What’s the point of being down and trying to look at every reason for it?’.

“It’s not going to change, so we just have to try to be positive, and after speaking to (team principal) Ross (Brawn) and a few other people, there are positives.

“The thing is we need to stay positive in ourselves, and as one team, because if we are not, then who is going to be interested in taking us over?”