Max Mosley's reaction to the withdrawal of BMW from F1 at the end of the season has predictably been one of casual insouciance, with the outgoing FIA president insisting, Gloria Gaynor-style, that Formula One will survive.
Mosley told the BBC that he is confident as ever about the future of the sport, despite BMW's shock announcement that they will leave the sport after the 2009 season for budgetary and performance reasons. BMW became the second manufacturer to leave F1 in the last year, with Honda also withdrawing in December last year. Rumours remain that more manufacturers will follow as the world's economy continues to collapse like a flan in a cupboard.
"We've got three new teams and several more who'd like to come in," Mosley pointed out when asked about the future of the sport, "If any more manufacturers quit we've got people who'd replace them. I think F1 will be very healthy with or without the manufacturers."
F1's manufacturer count tends to work in cycles. Ten years ago, there were only four manufacturers fully participating in the sport, Mercedes and Ferrari were joined by Ford (with the Stewart team) and Peugeot (with the laughable Prost outfit). Mosley said that manufacturer withdrawals were to be expected with the economic climate being as damp as it is.
"I feel very sorry because it's a very important company and they've been super competitive in F1, but it's something we've been expecting with some of the big manufacturers," he pointed out, using the chance to bleat on about cost-cutting as he did so: "It's not possible that they go on spending the sort of money they're spending with the industry as a whole in so much trouble.
"All of these companies have problems, they're shutting factories, putting people on short-term contracts and even in most cases depending on taxpayers money, through things like scrapping schemes. So it doesn't really fit that they spend a great deal on F1 so we still need to get the cost down to show they're not wasting money."
That Mosley used this withdrawal to make a political point is not especially classy, but also not very surprising. BMW had been among the most vociferous of the FOTA teams in rallying against the FIA's draconian plans for 2010 and beyond, and were one of the eight teams who announced plans for their own breakaway series earlier in the year before a tentative peace deal was agreed.
"Team principals who run the teams don't want their budgets cut but we're now going over their heads to the chief execs of these big companies saying 'you've got to back us up in efforts to get costs down', - and I think all the indications are that this will happen," Mosley continued, his face struggling to cope with the level of schadenfreude he was currently feeling.
"I don't know that we'll get a budgetary cap, but we may get a significant reduction in expenditure. Teams are making efforts to reduce but we don't think they've gone far enough or fast enough."
As to whether more manufacturers would follow BMW in running for the door with their wallets between their legs, Mosley claimed to have no reason to expect such a move, but admitted that it was a possibility.
"There are rumours, but there are always rumours, so we don't pay attention until we get concrete information," he waffled, "All the manufacturers to some extent have to be kept an eye on, as they've all come in and out (of the competition) on more than one occasion.
"You always have a worry about a manufacturer as it's not their core business. Somebody like BMW, their business is making cars, whereas for Williams, F1 is their business. With somebody whose core business is not F1, there's always the possibility they're going to leave."
The future of the owner-less BMW Sauber team is still up in the air, with a new backer being sought. Should the team fold completely, Le Mans manufacturer Epsilon Euskadi have already announced their willingness to step into the freed-up grid slot to keep 2010 grid levels at the planned 26 cars.
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