Everyone is struggling with the soaring price of oil, and it was quite apt that FIA president Max Mosley announced he wanted to cut fuel usage in Formula 1 by 50 per cent by 2015.

That’s a big ask. In the coming years, F1 will be moving to new circuits in new countries, and that is going to mean more fly-away races, more transportation costs, and so regardless of what restrictions and measures are put in place on track, off the track the teams are still going to need HGVs to transport everything to the circuits. New races in Singapore, Abu Dhabi, India, South Korea, Russia and similar places will mean a significantly higher fuel use.

A more realistic target would be 20 per cent, the current figure Formula 1 teams have been told to consider by 2011. In F1 terms, 2011 isn’t that far away, with the bigger teams expected to be preparing for 2010 already, and that target could be hard to reach as F1 engines can burn a litre of fuel in under a mile.

One way of reducing fuel used could be to reduce fuel quantity allowed over the year for all sanctioned testing and race weekends, thereby limiting the on-track time that some teams spend to ensure they have enough for races. The fuel limit could be further cut in subsequent years as the cars’ fuel efficiency improves, while there could also be changes implemented on engine development.

Before Sunday's Grand Prix at Hockenheim – won by Lewis Hamilton – some drivers clocked up more than 300 laps during the three days of testing. That’s the equivalent of almost five full-race runs round the circuit, and while the data might be important to the teams for the race and future development, it borders on recklessness. Hockenheim might only be used every two years, but there’s no need for teams to do that much testing so close to the race itself.

At the moment engines are limited to being 2.4litre V8s, limited to 19,000rpm, but if teams were allowed to be more creative with their engine development we could see a revolution in design that could be filtered down to engines in road cars, which is something that the FIA would be interested in and would benefit all motorists and F1.

Surely it’s more of a challenge to roll up to a race with no idea of how it’s going to play out. You know the circuit layout, you know what you have as a car, have an hour’s practice on the Friday to get everything set up, then a 15-30 minute session on the Saturday morning before qualifying to make sure everything is as best prepared as possible, then go racing.

There are some proposals to use bio-fuel, and the teams are being encouraged to investigate the possibility of running with a composite fuel to reduce the amount of fossil fuel used. It sounds like a good idea, but all it means it that they will be burning more bio-fuel in the reckless manner they do with current fuel mixes. Unless further restrictions are imposed as to how they use fuel, there will always be wasteful fuel consumption.

If simply giving teams a limit on a fuel doesn’t work, then how about penalising teams for abusing their fuel? If they’ve used more than is acceptable in one race, issue a grid penalty for the next race as punishment, or maybe even deduct points in the constructors’ championship? They are measures that could at least have teams watching their fuel usage with a view to reducing what they waste.

Again the FIA have complained about the amount of money being spent by some of the bigger teams to prepare and race two cars, and asked teams to look at reducing the budgets, but that’s as much use as shooting yourself in the foot. The FIA need to say to teams: “If you want to race, we’re more than happy to have you, but this is the maximum budget you can have for a single season, including development, testing and racing – if you don’t like it, you know where the exit is.”

I’d be amazed if fuel usage is cut by half in seven years, unless F1 rules dramatically change and the technology is available quickly and turns out to be reliable, and that’s not guaranteed to happen without significant investment in the multi-millions, which the FIA is discouraging by asking teams to cut their budget. I’m sorry, but the FIA can’t have it both ways. If teams do cut their budget, then Mosley will have to wait longer than 2015 to see his fuel cuts.