F1 oligarch Bernie Ecclestone has sided with Ferrari on the issues surrounding the pace of the sport's new teams, suggesting that the struggles of the trio of newbies proves that the budget cap rules were a bad idea.
Ferrari, as well as a number of F1 drivers past and present, have voiced concerns over the new Virgin, Lotus and HRT teams, which look set to spend at least the first part of the season lagging some way behind the established teams on the grid.
And Ecclestone added that the problems the small teams have faced prove that the sort of small budget proposed by the FIA's 2009 budget cap rules had not been set high enough to allow anyone to adequately run a Formula One team.
"Ferrari is right," Ecclestone told Germany's Auto Moto Und Sport, siding with the Italian team's dismissive attitude towards the newcomers.
The entry list for 2010 had originally been opened up based on the FIA's proposed 45 million Euro budget cap, to take effect from 2010, and both Virgin (formerly Manor GP) and HRT (formerly Campos) had signed up based on those rules.
But following a manufacturer-led insurgency over the summer of 2009, the budget cap proposals were scrapped, leaving the new teams struggling to compete.
But although Ecclestone admitted that the cap "would have given them a chance" by levelling the playing field to the frontrunners, he pointed out that the new teams still trying to work to a minimal budget were proof that the idea had been wrong.
"I always warned that a budget limit would not work," Bernie questionably ranted, "Now the new teams find that their budgets are not sufficient."
The Virgin Racing team have said that they are still set to run on a budget within the originally proposed figure, while HRT had to undergo an internal buyout just to scrape onto the grid.
Lotus, meanwhile, are backed financially by the Malaysian government, but have also struggled for both pace and sponsorship ahead of their debut season.
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