Williams have already been hit by the withdrawal of Icelandic Baugur Group, Lenevo and Petrobas during the last few months, but have managed to renew or upgrade deals with ten other sponsors and team owner Frank Williams has said that they are well placed to see out the next two years.

Despite the drastic cost cutting measures already implemented in F1, Max Mosley has recently said that more cuts need to be agreed very soon if Formula 1 is to survive. Renault boss Flavio Briatore, who’s own team will lose it’s main sponsor ING next season, believes that the teams are ready to negotiate further cuts in running costs to ensure that the  sport is more viable, not only for the teams already involved, but also to attract more competitors on to the grid.

Bernie Ecclestone

The three time Formula One world champion Sir Jackie Stewart has made F1 news in The Times today, saying that the time is right for the sports dictators Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley to step down and some new blood introduced to take the sport into the future.

Stewart is the first to acknowledge the contribution that Ecclestone and Mosley have made to Formula 1, by making the sport what it is today, but believes that the pair are also responsible for what he calls a ‘climate of disillusionment’ in Formula 1, and says that a reappraisal is long overdue.

“The era of big change is now essential because the sport has grown larger than either the governors or the commercial-rights holders. And that’s just a fact,” says Stewart who argues that Ecclestone, in particular, has milked the sport financially and has so much power and influence that “he could suffocate almost any performer who would dare to suggest that there must be change.”

Stewart is also critical of the fact that there is no natural successor to the current managerial stranglehold of Ecclestone and at 78 years old, that has to be wrong and he suggests that the sport would benefit from headhunting a CEO from outside of Formula 1.

Following recent F1 news of cutting running costs for 2009 and onwards, Stewart says that the problem is that too much revenue is finding it’s way into Ecclestone’s pockets and none is coming back into the sport.

It is no secret that many of the teams and racetracks are facing a torrid time in the current financial crisis, Honda’s withdrawal in December and the loss of racing in Canada and France announced last year bear testament to that fact, yet still the teams receive less than 50% of revenue. Racetrack organisers get very little in return from their huge investment often relying on ticket sales alone.

Like many others Stewart dismissed the recent medal proposal as being ‘non sensical an inappropriate for a professional sport.’