Post-2020 engine rules key to cutting costs - Carey

F1 CEO Chase Carey believes that a change in the sport's engine rules in 2020, when current regulations expire, provides an opportunity for slashing costs.

In a recent meeting led by Carey and F1 sporting manager Ross Brown, which included F1's four manufacturers, as well as representatives from Alfa Romeo and VW/Audi and the FIA, a basic format was agreed.

"We came out of a meeting a few weeks ago on the engines to sort of say, we think we'd like the engine to be simpler, cheaper, louder," said Carey.

"This last generation became more expensive and complex, which is what enabled for a period Mercedes to build a better engine than everybody else.

"We want technology and engineering to be part of the sport, but it shouldn't be a defining part of the sport. You should get an edge, but first and foremost we still want the drivers to be the stars.

"What some of the teams spend on the sport today is an incredible amount, and they'll acknowledge it's an incredible amount. To some degree they're saying, 'We need to be protected from ourselves.'

"There are a handful teams that spend an extraordinary amount that aren't really spending to create something that enhances the consumer experience.

"What they're doing is spending because two other guys are spending it, so they've got to do it to compete with the other guys.

"And we want this to be healthier for all the teams, we'd like to be a healthy business for them. If we can manage the spending, the engine becomes part of that."

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But there's also a secondary agenda pushing Libert Media for change and controlling costs, centered around a revised distribution of revenue plan, in a bid to make F1 viable for the smaller teams.

Carey insists therefore that any reduction in costs will make it easier to justify a reduction in revenue.

"Costs and revenues are all inter related. You have to deal with it in pieces, but you want to start with a focus on the whole.

"So it's costs, revenue, rules, engines, which is why our real focus is that we want to make for everybody the business of owning a team a much better business proposition for everybody.

"There are certainly benefits for some of the teams in marketing, branding and other benefits that come out of it, but we think it's good for everybody, including us, to make the economics of owning a team much healthier.

"We're addressing that more holistically at this point."

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