F1 to lower $175m budget cap

Back to the old Max Mosley plan?

(GMM) As the coronavirus pandemic rules the world, F1 has a "historic opportunity" to drastically cut costs in Formula 1.

That is the view of former driver Christian Danner, as Auto Motor und Sport claims that F1 CEO Chase Carey and FIA president Jean Todt are working on driving down the scheduled $175 million budget cap for 2021.

"It is a historic opportunity," Danner said.

"The best thing is to set the budget cap according to the old Mosley plan," he said, referring to former FIA president Max Mosley's original idea of a EUR 40 million cap.

For now, F1 has decided to suspend development of the all-new cars for 2022, banning wind tunnel development until February 2021.

And the only team that can substantially change its current car for 2021 is McLaren.

Team boss Andreas Seidl said the newest measures do "not impact our change to Mercedes power units in 2021, and we will be allowed to make the necessary changes to our car to accommodate this".