Liberty Media’s vision to change the sport of Formula 1 by making it more competitive and appealing to the average viewer hasn’t gone down well with some of the top F1 team, especially Ferrari, who feel that Liberty shouldn’t be bringing the NFL mindset to F1, as F1 is a very technical sport.
Bringing about a cost cap is one of the many changes that have been proposed by Liberty in a bid to provide all teams with a level playing field.
As per rumours a $150m per season limit could be enforced, something that McLaren believe is good for the sport(obviously contrary to Ferrari and Mercedes’ belief).
McLaren executive director, Zak Brown believes that a cap in spending should be enforced and that Liberty Media and the FIA must ensure that the system is well regulated and fair towards all participating teams.
Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari have insane resource budgets and Brown wants the authorities to look into it and enforce some kind of budget cap.
“I think some of the budgets here in pit lane are some of the largest that there’s ever been in Formula 1,” Brown said.
“I think between the FIA and Liberty, it feels to me like cost cap and cost containment should be a commercial issue in which the FIA regulate it and governs it. I think that it potentially needs better alignment between Liberty and the FIA.” he added.
Brawn then emphasised on the fact that Liberty had to come up with a solution quickly as teams needed clarity with respect to how all the new rules will be applied and enforced.
“I’ve heard that their support of cost cap and cost containment but we don’t really have anything definitive on the table, which I think we are all asking for.
Every other business in this day and age as figured out to make their business more efficient, more cost effective and deliver more value both to the racing teams to create franchise value and also deliver a better product for the racing fans. It needs to be addressed, it needs to be on a bit of a glide path as potentially the numbers they’re talking about will impact the top four or five teams.” he concluded.
