Marussia sporting director Graeme Lowdon feels Formula One stands on the brink of being branded a failure if it is unable to implement much-needed cost control measures.
The 11 teams, along with FIA president Jean Todt and chief executive Bernie Ecclestone, face a crucial meeting on May 1 in a bid to thrash out measures to prevent the smaller marques from going to the wall.
Todt had planned to impose a cost cap from next year, only for F1’s Strategy Group - comprising Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes, Red Bull, Lotus and Williams - to veto the idea.
That prompted a furious response from Force India, Sauber, Caterham and Marussia, resulting in the crisis talks next Thursday.
Lowdon feels it is imperative F1 finds a solution, as other global sports such as America’s NFL have done in recent years in times of financial trouble.
“We want to see Formula One grow, and there is an important lesson to be learned from sports that have demonstrated huge growth over the last five to 10 years,” said Lowdon, speaking to Press Association Sport.
“There are two elements that are a feature of those sports; one is an equitable distribution of finances within the sport, and the second is cost control of some description.
“It doesn’t necessarily have to be a cap. There are other techniques used - ceilings, luxury taxes, financial fair play mechanisms.
“All the major global sports that have demonstrated high growth have adopted something and reaped the rewards.
“Those sports have delivered in terms of close, exciting competition and fans of Formula One want to see close, exciting racing.
“Some people have said it’s too difficult to implement financial rules. Frankly, that’s absolute rubbish.
“Financial accountability is the cornerstone of commerce, and the methods of auditing and accounting are as tried and tested as measuring the size of wings in scrutineering, or anything else like that.
“If Formula One cannot achieve that, when other sports can, it would be seen as some kind of failure. Why should this be a step beyond its ability? For me it makes no sense.
“It’s something that can be done and should be done. It’s an important step, and we need to seize the opportunity.
“We’ve been talking about these measures for years. It cannot be that difficult, even if there might be some short-term pain for some people.”
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has long stated a cap would be impossible to police, and instead feels cuts should be made through the sporting and technical regulations.
Lowdon does not feel such a proposal goes far enough, citing McLaren as the perfect example in light of Group CEO Ron Dennis’ comments prior to the start of the season.
“Over the years, through regulation changes, we’ve cut back on such things as testing and engines,” added Lowdon.
“Yet this season we had a public statement from McLaren saying they’re spending more money than they’ve ever done, which tells you you can’t do it through the regulations alone.
“At the end of the day the best teams with the cleverest guys will still win, but Formula One should reward skill and not just financial strength.
“Right now there is far too much evidence to suggest it rewards financial strength whereby you make a mistake and you just buy your way out of the problem.”
Lowdon feels “an upper ceiling” on cost control, plus cuts via the regulations should both be implemented.
“We have a set of regulations at the moment where you can buy performance - if you spend more you can go quicker,” said Lowdon.
“If there is a ceiling then it will prevent the grid from getting stretched too far.
“So what we would like to see is a mixture of cost cap, together with sporting and technical regulations that limit areas of potential high spend.
“We could have some common components, some limits on materials, the banning of certain devices, or whatever.
“If you have this mixture then it would prevent teams from spending to gain success.”
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