BUDAPEST -- Just how reasonably priced should an "affordable" Formula One engine leasing program be? Just how much should a privateer team have to pay for a year's supply of engines and service?

Eddie Jordan has it boiled down to a very reasonable figure.

"My ballpark figure is that they should pay me 10 million to use their engine!" he quipped prior to the Hungarian Grand Prix. "I am in the real world; it is the rest of them that are not!"

Pushed on the subject, Jordan joked around a bit more before getting down to business.

"Ten (million)," he said. "Ten less five is five, less five for good behavior and you are zero. But we are not in the dreaming business -- we are in reality. The facts are how much is the engine going to cost, and I would like to be able to do a deal for 10 million euros for the engine. And at the moment I am working towards that."

As part of the rules compromise reached earlier this year, Formula One's ruling body the FIA insisted that F1's engine manufacturers create an "affordable" engine supply that would be available to the privateer teams.

Just what was "affordable" was left open to debate, but the figure of 10 million euros (about $11 to $12 million depending on the exchange rates) was mentioned frequently earlier this season.

The 10 million figure can be traced back to a letter that Mercedes-Benz circulated early this year to the teams and engine manufacturers suggesting that something be worked out so that the privateer teams could lease engines for 10 million euros per season. The figure was a ballpark suggestion rather than a firm offer, but Mercedes-Benz should be credited with starting the initiative.

"It is a concern because of different interpretations of what people understand as affordable," Jordan said.

F1's three privateer teams, Sauber, Jordan and Minardi, currently pay considerably more than that for their current lease programs. The figures aren't made public, but it's said that Sauber spends about $23 million for one-year-old Ferrari V10s, Jordan pays over $18 million for its Ford Cosworths and Minardi pays less than that for its older spec Ford Cosworths. Some engine lease programs in recent years have been as high as $30 million annually.

Eddie Jordan's F1 team has been through some lean times since he started it in 1991, but he's called 2003 the toughest season yet for his team. Money is tight, and the fact that quite a few of the team's sponsorship deals expired at the same time didn't help.

So it comes as no surprise that Jordan wants to get as cheap a deal as possible on his engine supply for next year.

"I am happy to work with Cosworth," Jordan said, "but I need to get to the figures that I believed that I had already pre-arranged in the budget in terms of a proposal for my sponsors and for the team going forward. Any manufacturer or prudent team will have a projection as to what the likely costs are going forward. In those projections I have 10 million euros (for engines in 2004.)"

Several engine manufacturers have said they are not in a position to supply customer engines to anyone; others have said they can do it but not for 10 million; and still others have said they couldn't anything before 2005.

Mercedes-Benz, and Ford, through its Cosworth Racing arm, have been the two companies that have been at the forefront of tackling the problem of "affordable" customer engines.

Mercedes-Benz's racing chief Norbert Haug says the price isn't fixed yet, but the teams will save millions.

"One thing is for sure, it will be a big reduction in what they had to pay," he said. "I can't find one single other point in the new rules that would save a team 10 million."

Ford is also looking into the situation.

"On the subject of fully affordable engines, a lot of people have worked very hard in the background ever since January to try and find solutions to making the supply to private teams more affordable," said Tony Purnell who heads up Ford's Premiere Performance Division that oversees both the Jaguar Racing F1 team and Cosworth Racing.

"The culprit here is the fact that Formula One engines are very, very expensive," Purnell said. "That is the real difficulty, and even to supply them at an incremental cost is still very expensive. To date no one has found an ideal solution to get the price right down. But I know there is still work going on, and I feel optimistic that eventually a good solution will be found to make life viable for teams without manufacturer support."

One insider told ESPN.com that Cosworth has offered engines to Jordan next year for 17.5 million euros, but that will come down to 12.5 million euros because of a sponsorship package with Ford Europe. Jordan has two more years to go on its Ford contract, but there are get-out clauses.

Eddie Jordan is still hoping for 10 million euro engines package.

"We all know that there is an open letter about an offer or a position of offer of various different things about what the likely cost or the estimated cost that an engine should cost a private team," Jordan said, referring to Mercedes-Benz's suggestion of 10 million. "Sadly, that has not been able to be adhered to yet. Tony (Purnell) has touched on that by talking about the increasing cost of engines despite the one engine rule for next year."

"Engines (are) a very costly item in the overall structure of a Formula One budget," Jordan said. "I believe that as privateer teams we were offered that (10 million deal). I certainly hope so because I am relying on it in my budgetary format."

Okay, bottom line: The same question that started off this whole discussion: Just reasonably priced should an "affordable" Formula One engine leasing program be?

"I am not sure what the right price is," Jordan said, "but it comes back to the age-old question: Do we want privateer teams in Formula One or do we not?

"Trying to estimate what some person has to give for an engine for or not...I am not sure how it can be structured. But the key issue here is do the major manufacturers want three privateers in Formula One? If they do, I think that all of us as a unit, as a sport, as a lobby group, ten of us, should get together to see how we can keep all ten of us in the sport with affordable engines."

Dan Knutson covers Formula One for National Speed Sport News and ESPN.com.