Liberty to reveal F1 budget cap plan

New F1 brass looking to cut costs

(GMM) The idea of team budget caps in formula one is not dead yet.

With the arrival of Liberty Media, ideas about how to improve the competitiveness of the field are running thick and fast.

One idea is a Nascar-like system, where at a certain point of the season, cars and engines must be presented to the competition so that technical secrets are revealed.

But even the smallest teams are not keen on that.

"Not everything that works in other sports is transferable to formula one," said Force India sporting boss Otmar Szafnauer. "The Nascar rule does not fit with the DNA of F1.

"Whoever wants equality of opportunity should give everyone the same money."

And so the budget cap idea is being talked about again. Germany's Auto Motor und Sport claims that Liberty will show the teams a plan about combining a cap with staff, production and tool limits in the summer.

The regime would then be introduced for a trial year without consequences for non-compliance.

"We want to see whether the monitoring mechanisms work," a Liberty source said.

New F1 chief executive Chase Carey said: "Everyone understands that the sport can only be healthy if it offers spectators action and competition and races whose outcome is not predictable.

"Toto Wolff recently said 'If Ferrari wins, that is good for the sport' and that's the point. He understands that it is about the sport.

"If one team wins everything, it has won the battle but lost the war if nobody is watching anymore," he added.