F1: American owner Liberty Media’s changes have made F1 racing much better

What Liberty Media has done for F1 from a commercial side is nothing short of miraculous, as evidence by the sport’s booming popularity.

However, what they have done from the cost-cap and technical rules side of things is equally important and has resulted in much better racing this year, with the have-nots now more competitive than ever.

Formula 1’s introduction of a cost cap and new technical regulations has been one of the key reasons for more spectacular racing this year, said Haas team boss Gunther Steiner in a recent press conference.

“I think what is happening at the moment is there’s a lot of fighting going on – and in many areas fighting in a good way out on the racetrack,” he said.

“There’s a lot of racing going on. And I think that’s down also to the cost cap. We have created a successful rule, and we shouldn’t go away from the principle.”

“It should not be the intention to go back to the good old days, where just who’s got more money is going to win and then take the championship away,” he added.

“I think that for FOM, what happened at [races like] Silverstone was fantastic in my opinion, and for the spectators it was fantastic.

“You always have to think why did we have this? I think the cost cap is part of it. And therefore, I think we should try to protect the cost cap as much as we can by not hurting teams this year.”

“It’s not just the cost cap, it’s also the technical regulations with this car,” he said.

“I think it is a bit harder than it was in the old days because the upgrades people brought, they were not as big as they were years ago.

“It’s much more difficult to find performance with these technical regulations than it was before. So we have also to say these technical regulations are pretty good.”