The landscape of Formula One is to change dramatically with the introduction of a standard engine for all cars in a move designed to make the sport cheaper for aspiring new teams.

Under a Formula One “survival” plan being drawn up by Bernie Ecclestone, the sport’s commercial rights holder, and Max Mosley, the president of the FIA, the engines would each be designed to last for half the season and would potentially reduce the hugely expensive cost of powering the race cars by up to 90 per cent within two years.

Inquiries by The Times have established that Ecclestone and Mosley are planning draconian reforms that will be imposed on the teams as the sport faces up to its environmental responsibility and the imperative to cut costs.

At present, engine development in Formula One is frozen for five years in a regime that started last year. But they are still units that are designed by each team and they are able to be replaced after every two races, so teams and manufacturers are spending tens of millions of pounds each season on “drive-train costs”, which includes spending on engines and gearboxes.

Under the new proposals there will be one standard engine specification, which each team will be able to build, but it will be identical to those of their rivals. The only difference will be the manufacturer’s name on the block. Teams without manufacturer support will have access to the same engine through an independent contractor.

The proposals represent a huge cultural and philosophical shift for an elitist sport that has always been seen as not only a competition between the best drivers in the world but a battle between some of the best engine and car manufacturers, most of whom have long and proud traditions in motor sport.

Ecclestone, who has never been one to worry about sentimentality, is determined that this reform will be put in place by the beginning of the 2010 season and that it will not fall by the wayside, as many apparently radical proposals in Formula One have done in the past.

“The thing I am most excited about is pushing and pushing and pushing the homologated engine idea,” he said yesterday, during the build-up to this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix at Fuji. “The new engine will be equalised and there will only be two engine changes a year, so costs are going to dramatically come down, and I mean dramatically.”

The spectre haunting the sport is the danger that spiralling costs in increasingly difficult commercial circumstances could force out the smaller teams and leave Formula One struggling to remain a credible championship. Like Ecclestone, Mosley believes that the time has come for radical reform and he is committed to making it happen, with sources close to him underlining that the teams will be presented with a fait accompli if they do not come up with broadly similar ideas.

“There are various things we can do, but the most obvious would be to reduce the cost of the drive-train,” Mosley said after a meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) in Paris on Tuesday. “At present, if you can believe this, the engine and gearbox together, for an independent team, is upwards of ¤30 million (about £23.7 million) a year.

“That could be done for probably 5 per cent of that cost without the person in the grandstand noticing any difference at all. Even those big spenders, if they’re given the opportunity to save ¤100 million or ¤200 million a year, they’ll do so. And we’ve got various means of making sure they don’t spend the money, but it does need some draconian changes.”

Apart from discussions about engines, the WMSC was notable also for the reception given to Ecclestone after he said that he regretted having asked Mosley to stand down as president in the wake of lurid revelations in a newspaper about his private life. Ecclestone is understood to have said that, having been friends with Mosley for 40 years, “when he needed some support I should have given it to him”.

Mosley was described as “genuinely surprised” and “moved” by Ecclestone’s comments. The episode underlines that, notwithstanding the teams, manufacturers and sponsors who want Mosley out, the most powerful man in Formula One has buried the hatchet with his old friend.