Red Bull Clarify Situation on 2021 Budget

Red Bull motorsport advisor, Dr Helmut Marko has slammed the brakes on reports that Formula 1 is now close to reaching an agreement about a 2021 budget cap.

In recent days, it was reported that at the January meeting of the strategy group, the big teams basically agreed with Liberty Media and the FIA about the imposition of maximum annual budgets of $185m (2021), $160m (2022) and $135m (2023).

“We are still a long way from an agreement,” Red Bull’s Marko told Auto Bild.

“Basically, we agree with Ferrari and Mercedes in terms of numbers, but the other teams are still very critical.

“We also need to discuss which departments of the racing team fall under the budget limit. Nothing is clear,” the Austrian insists.

Marko said there is also a lot of uncertainty about how the budget cap will be policed, especially at carmaker teams like Ferrari and Mercedes.

“Controlling it is very difficult to accomplish. How do you know which computer is working for the car company and which is working for F1,” he said.

The proposed Formula 1 budget cap was a hot topic of conversation at the latest meeting of the F1 Strategy Group.

The first strategy group meeting of 2019 took place last week in Geneva, according to published reports in both Italy’s La Gazzetta dello Sport and Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

It was Mattia Binotto’s first such meeting as Ferrari team principal, and La Gazzetta dello Sport cited a source who said the Italian was more like Stefano Domenicali in the meetings than the harder Maurizio Arrivabene he replaces. As for the FIA and Liberty Media, they presented their renewed push for a budget cap that will begin in 2021. In the first year, the cap would start at $185 million, reducing to $160 million and then down to $135 for 2023.

Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull and McLaren are said to have agreed to the numbers. This is in part because the FIA and Liberty Media have agreed to exclude engine costs, top manager and driver salaries, and marketing and hospitality expenses.

The legal sale of parts from one team to another was reportedly also discussed.

Gene Haas, Haas F1 Team owner, says the budget cap could help the smaller teams catch up to the big-spending top three — Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.

“Probably (it will), if it reduces the size of their research and development,” Haas said. “I guess for every person we have they have five people. If there’s anything that can reduce that gap between the technology they have and what we don’t have, that would probably be very helpful.”