FIA President Todt met Chase Carey, Ross Brawn and F1 teams’ heads via video conferencing as they discussed budget cap and 2020 calendar.
As everyone waits for any action to begin on track, the work behind the scenes continued between FIA, F1 and the teams, with another video conference held on Thursday between Todt, Carey, Brawn and the various officials of the 10 outfits.
The main agenda was the budget cap, something which McLaren’s Zak Brown has been pressing about now as the British F1 team wants the set cap to be lowered even more in 2021. The initial budget limit was to come at $175 million (with set guidelines).
But with the COVID-19 pandemic wrecking everyone financially, teams called for even a lower cap with the amount said to be $150 million. While an informal agreement was made, McLaren pressed to lower it even further, citing bankruptcy of smaller outfits.
The latest meet had discusses about a $145 million cap for F1 2021 and even a lower one in 2022 at $130 million as per reports on BBC Sport and Racefans.net. No agreement was reached, however, with Ferrari feeling uneasy due to norms in Italy.
Mattia Binotto has been vocal about lower cap which will lead to job cuts, something for which they are answerable to the Italian authorities. Red Bull Racing has backed them up previously but it wasn’t clear if it was the same in this F1 meet too.
Mercedes sits in the middle though, with discussions to continue as to how they can handle the situation. Another idea which gained momentum was the big teams getting less time to research on aerodynamics or use the windtunnel, the following year.
It will be based on the position they finish. The idea was something similar to what Racing Point’s Otmar Szafnauer had spoken about in Singapore last year. Despite no definite answers, the meet was termed as positive and constructive.
Meanwhile, for the 2020 F1 calendar, the discussion centered around Austria being the potential season-opening race. They are the only European nation which has a plan to ease up restrictions, which can help the grand prix to take place on July 3-5 date.
It will, of course, be behind the closed doors, should it happen. Beyond that, they talked about Silverstone hosting two-three rounds without fans, especially because it will help them be at the same place, with three outsider teams stationed in hotels nearby.
So far, races until Canadian GP has been cancelled/postponed, with French GP likely to see the same fate. The latest talk around Belgium GP and Italian GP also makes it dicey – which is why F1 has had to do away with the original 2020 calendar and make a new one.
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