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Chase Carey has admitted Liberty Media is considering imposing a budget cap in formula one. The new F1 owners' latest moves have prompted Ferrari to threaten to quit, and Mercedes is also vocally troubled.
But chief executive Carey says the sport must do something about spiralling costs. "Everyone agrees that it makes no sense to spend as much money as some teams do," he told Auto Bild. "That does not mean we want to make the sport or the technology worse, but we need to look at how teams spend their money -- and how much they spend," the American added.
One rumour is that Liberty is eyeing a $150 million budget cap, which would definitely curtail the spending of the biggest teams like Ferrari and Mercedes. Carey said: "I don't want to talk about numbers here, but for a budget limit, you need rules and then consequences for trying to cheat. The former owners did a great job, but the world is changing and a lot of potential has been lost in recent years," he added.
Carey said Ferrari and Mercedes are "extremely important" to formula one, but the most important consideration is to produce "happy fans". "Everything else is secondary," he said. "I want a healthy sport for the fans but also for the teams," Carey continued.
"My goal is for new teams to enter formula one -- both private individuals and large manufacturers. It's a fact that nobody wanted to buy Manor -- not even for a dollar. That cannot be. There must not be a team that nobody wants to buy," he said. (GMM)
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C. Sainz jr
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Replies (5)
Login to replyajpennypacker
Posts: 2,475
I think a lot of people agree that there should be a budget cap, but I've never heard of a proper proposal of how to enforce it. Especially for the large companies like Renault, Ferrari, and Mercedes, where there are dozens of legal entities, balance sheets, budgets etc. That being said, I think that 150m is an appropriate number. It's definitely more than half the grid spends per year. Still, I don't ever see this happening. Neither Mercedes nor Ferrari will allow it. Ever.
Pauli
Posts: 140
I guess they would have to require car parts be either manufactured by team them selfs or if part is bought from affiliate company then the part must be available to all teams at same price. That would at least make sure that if parts are bought into team under their development costs then all teams would have access to them at same price.
But then it is of course issue of transfering IP and how to regulate that if RD costs is taken by different part of the company and then just production and maintenance cost is visible in team budget.
jtrikakis
Posts: 2
Trouble is i F1 the "teams" are F1, the fans less so. I hope F1 doesn't turn into the NFL or MLB.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
A budget cap could be good, but make it a very high cap.
mcbhargav
Posts: 1,332
His speech is good. Hope they take actions, after the speeches.