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Todt optimistic customer engine won't be needed

FIA president Jean Todt says he is optimistic the power unit manufacturers will produce positive proposals to help lower costs in F1.

Plans for an independent engine for customer teams were put on hold after a meeting of the Strategy Group in November, with the current engine manufacturers tasked with submitting proposals to address the cost, supply, technical specifications and noise of the current power units.

Solutions are set to be submitted to the FIA today (Friday) and Todt says it will take until Tuesday for anything to be officially agreed following further meetings.

“I have some global ideas with proposals from the manufacturers, but we have to put things right," Todt said at the Autosport International Show. "The manufacturers met under the leadership of the FIA - mainly in Geneva - several times and they all were together with an agenda which was written by the FIA.

"They are going to make some proposals by tonight. I have proposals on most of the items which I feel are going in the right direction and on Monday afternoon at 3 o’clock we have a Strategy Meeting in Geneva and the day after we have the F1 Commission in Geneva, so that’s where we are.”

Asked if he is confident there will be no need for a customer engine, Todt replied: “Yeah I’m optimistic.

"I hope that people have some good sense because it’s our championship, you know? It’s their interests. It’s the interests of the teams, it’s the interests of the commercial rights holder. That’s why I think in a normal world with sensible people we should all be able to agree on the good solutions.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.