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From GMM

F1 will move to put cost-cutting efforts back on the agenda during a May 1 meeting.

Earlier, it was reported FIA president Jean Todt was considering new measures including reviving 'active suspension', after the new top team-dominated Strategy Group blocked his move to impose budget caps in 2015.

A meeting for 1 May has now been called.

"Time is running out," Monisha Kaltenborn, whose Sauber team ran into high-profile financial strife last year, is quoted by the German news agency DPA.

"Actually, the time for this decision is long gone, but it's never too late," the Swiss team's boss added.

F1's smaller teams are angry that their more powerful rivals are thwarting moves to reduce spiralling costs, and reportedly threatening to challenge the Strategy Group against European competition laws.

"It's not about small or big teams," insisted Force India chief Bob Fernley, "it's about the future of formula one."

World champion team Red Bull's Christian Horner, however, insists the biggest teams are not opposed to reducing costs.

"We need to identify the cost drivers and equalise the playing field for everyone," he said.

Horner argues, however, that a budget cap was not the right solution.

"How would a budget limit of $200 million help Sauber? They wouldn't save a single dollar," he claimed.

A key meeting, to be presided over by Todt and Bernie Ecclestone, will now take place on May 1, between the Chinese and Spanish grand prix.

"Hopefully we will find some solutions, and it's not another of those meetings where we do not make a lot of progress," Kaltenborn concluded.

From GMM

Lotus team owner Gerard Lopez on Sunday indicated he was unhappy to have joined the opposition against the introduction of budget caps.

The powerful 'Strategy Group' teams - comprising the 'big four' Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren but also Williams and Lotus - recently wrote to Jean Todt indicating they would not approve the FIA president's cap proposal.

Williams is included in the group due to the team's past success and history, while Lotus is also a member after finishing the 2013 season in fourth place.

But Lopez hinted to Germany's Auto Motor und Sport that the two smaller teams were bullied into signing the letter.

Pastor Maldonado, Lotus E22 (Photo: WRi2)

"Williams and us were pulled over the table," he is quoted as saying.

The biggest teams, however, argue not only that the proposed $200 million cap would not help their small rivals, but that it could not even be effectively policed.

And Mercedes' Toto Wolff is quoted on Sunday: "It makes no sense to introduce rules that are not supported by the three major teams."

The big teams' counter-proposal is for cost cuts to be achieved by introducing some new technical and sporting regulations.

"We need to find meaningful limits," Wolff explained, "such as extending the parc ferme or the curfew.

"We need to discuss, for example, whether it is sensible to fly in new parts on every day during a race weekend, or 24 hour shifts before races."

The small teams, however, are sceptical, believing that the big teams are already finding ways around the existing cost-saving measures, such as limited wind tunnel use.

"When I see the downforce of the big teams, it's impossible within the allowable limits," a representative of one small team is quoted as saying.

From GMM

Adrian Newey chose overcast Silverstone over smoggy Shanghai for the weekend of the Chinese grand prix.

Speed Week reports that Red Bull's technical boss was not on the Shanghai pitwall on Sunday because he was actually trackside at Silverstone.

It is at the British grand prix venue that the season opener of the world endurance sports car championship (WEC) is taking place, and Newey has been spotted chatting with Red Bull's newly-retired driver Mark Webber.

Mark Webber, Porsche 919 hybrid (Photo: Porsche)

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"It was just a shorter journey to Silverstone than it was to Shanghai," a smiling Newey explained.

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The

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