F1 News

Another meeting on budget cap: 'Constructive' discussion

17 April 2020 at 06:57
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  • GPblog.com

Just before Easter, the F1 summit came together to discuss lowering the budget ceiling. The F1 teams, Chase Carey and Jean Todt came to a tentative agreement that the intended budget ceiling could be lowered from 175 million to around 150 million. The talks were resumed on Thursday.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, changes are not only made to the calendar.  For 2021, a budget ceiling of 175 million per team was agreed for all teams. For the F1 and the FIA this amount was still a bit too high at the time. The organization aimed for a ceiling of 130 million.

Many teams, especially the large teams like Red Bull Racing, Scuderia Ferrari and Mercedes, did not agree with the 130 million and were satisfied with the 175 million. Because of the coronavirus drastic savings have to be made, it is a spearhead for the F1 and FIA to reduce the budget cap. In result, this will keep the competition fairer.

130 million

In the consultations that the teams and the organization had prior to Easter, Red Bull and Ferrari explicitly indicated not to agree to an amount below 150 million. The main reason was the dismissal of staff. A phased reduction of the budget cap was proposed.

Ross Brawn, however, likes to go back to the first proposals and told SkyF1 after the first meeting: "Two years ago we started the idea with 130 million a year and that's a lot of money. I think that's what we need to aim for now."

"The COVID crisis has given everyone a chance to see what's real and what's not. It has allowed us to regain some motivation and determination."

To be continued

According to Motorsport.com, Thursday at the end of the day it was decided that more time will have to be made to work out the details. The talks will continue next week. Of course during the discussion we also discussed the calendar. It seems that the first races of 2020 will take place in Europe behind closed doors.