Horner: F1's 2021 plans at risk of being 'watered down'

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has expressed fears that Formula 1's plans for changes ot the sport from 2021 are losing their focus.

Formula 1's commercial rights holders Liberty are due to present teams with more details of their plans for the sport's technical future this week.

But Horner said that he fears disagreements between Liberty and the sport's governing body the FIA could lead to a dilution of the original plans presented to teams in April.

"I think what’s by far Liberty’s biggest challenge is how to address the future, how to address 2021," he said last week in Austria.

"I think the problem, and the risks that I see, is if the FIA and the promoter aren’t fully aligned, we end up with compromises and vanilla-type regulations.

"There needs to be a real clarity going forward as to what the sport is going to be, what are the regulations going to be, that both parties ultimately have to buy into.

"Liberty have paid $8billion for this sport," he pointed out. "They’ve got to turn it into something that’s even more attractive. That’s fantastic racing, obviously there are cost issues, there’s revenue issues that need dealing with.

"The FIA, obviously as the governing body, they’ve got to be fully-aligned with that, and what concerns us is discussions of where things are going with engines, where things are going with chassis regulations.

"Everything seems to be getting watered down somewhat from what the initial concept is."

Horner has frequently been at odds with Mercedes boss Toto Wolff about some of the proposals. But on this point at least, it seemed that they were in complete agreement.

"Traditionally, if you look at the objectives, Christian and mine are maybe a little bit different," Wolff acknowledged. "We would like to have a little bit more emphasis on the power unit and Christian on the chassis.

"But I think transparency and a clear path is important. We need to know what’s happening in 2021, what the regs look like on the power unit side and on the chassis side."

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He said that early agreement was necessary "in order to get things moving and avoid a cost escalation, a cost rush last minute. That is important.

"I hope that with next week’s meeting, we have a little bit more understanding and input and then we see where it ends up."

Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost sounded much more optimistic about the outlook for the sport.

"I’m convinced that they [Liberty] are going in the right direction for the future of the sport," he said. "It’s important that Formula 1 will be changed, from the cost side and what they want to do is absolutely the right thing, to come down with the costs.

"Whether it’s a cost cap or whether it’s regulated by the sporting and technical regulations is another question," he admitted. "Then, to distribute the money in a fair way, not that some teams get everything and others nearly nothing.

"They will come up with a new technical regulation for the chassis as well of from the engine side – I think from the engine side should be finished soon, and they will also change the sporting regulation and, so far, all the topics which are being discussed are going in the right direction.

"What we need is not a two-class society like we have now: three teams and the rest of the world. No, it needs ten teams that are close together. Or at least four or five teams are fighting for the championship, fighting for race wins.

"This must be the goal, otherwise Formula 1 is not interesting in the future. I think Liberty Media understood this and they are going in the right direction. I can only support them."

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