Ferrari could quit F1

Mattia Binotto also in favor of customer cars

(GMM) Ferrari has warned that it could quit Formula 1 over the current dispute about the 2021 budget cap.

The Maranello team is the loudest and clearest objector to efforts to drive the headline figure from $175 million next year down to as low as $100m amid the global pandemic.

"The $145m level is already a new and demanding request compared to what was set out last June," Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto told the Guardian.

"It cannot be attained without further significant sacrifices, especially in terms of our human resources.

"If it was to get even lower, we would not want to be put in a position of having to look at other further options for deploying our racing DNA," he added.

He also worries that limiting F1's financial and technological power risks bringing the sport "ever closer to the lower formulae".

Binotto has argued that because every team is different, "it is not simple and straightforward to make structural changes simply by cutting costs in a linear fashion".

"We are well aware that F1 and indeed the whole world right now is going through a particularly difficult time because of the pandemic," he said.

"However, this is not the time to react in a hurry as there's a risk of making decisions on the back of this emergency without clearly evaluating all the consequences."

Binotto also agrees with Red Bull's Christian Horner that a better solution might be to allow the sale of 'customer cars' to smaller teams.

1986 CART IndyCar. IndyCar would be happy to have a 4-car Ferrari team.

"If the current emergency really put the existence of some of our competitors in this sport in doubt and made it necessary to revise certain cornerstones, then Ferrari would be open to it," he said.

"It's not even sacrilegious, given it's happened before in F1 and happens today in series such as MotoGP."

Once, to prove it was serious about quitting F1, Ferrari actually built an IndyCar to race in the 1986 CART season. Ferrari was unhappy that the new F1 engine rules for 1988 were for V8 normally engines that would replace the V6 turbos.