Would-be entrants to Formula One are being helped by the recession, according to the head of a new US team.

According to Bloomberg, Peter Windsor, former manager of nine-time constructors’ champion Williams and team principal of US Formula One (USF1), has said the cost of a spot on the starting grid in the motor racing series is now more within reach for smaller independent teams.

“The FIA (Fédération Internationale de L’Automobile) have massively reduced the cost of doing a Formula One team and the entry of a new team,” Windsor said in an interview at the Melbourne grand prix on Sunday. “It wouldn’t have happened in a so-called boom period.

“You can’t continue to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to allow two guys to go racing on Sunday afternoon, it has to become a more logical number.”

The FIA, governing body for motor racing events, announced announcement a series of cost-cutting initiatives including a £30 million ($43 million) budget limit on teams. The $48 million bond for new entries will also drop to about $1 million next season.

Windsor’s US team has lodged paperwork with the FIA and will start operations at the beginning of May. USF1 will be based in Charlotte, North Carolina, and will have a base in southern Europe where it will keep trucks, motor homes and equipment and stage pre-season testing.

Source: SportBusiness Int