F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Steiner warns against upwards revision of budget cap

Haas team boss Guenther Steiner says that any potential upward revision of F1's future budget cap limit would defeat its purpose for the sport's smaller teams.

Formula 1 will implement cost-cutting measures from 2021, with a strict $175 million limit imposed on spending although the measure will exclude from its provisions several items such as engines, drivers' salaries or marketing expenses.

The budget cap - which will be introduced along with F1's new technical regulations - is planned to improve the on-track competition by narrowing the gap between the teams at the front and their midfield rivals.

Steiner believes that the sport's trio of big teams will struggle to bring their budgets down to the $175 million limit, while the smaller outfits will hardly see any changes to their funding levels.

"We said we'd stick with what we got," Steiner said, quoted by GPToday.

"We are quite conservative with these things. We're going to do what we're doing and try to do it as good as possible.

"What it is mainly, we are not going to make the gap bigger. The big teams need to come down quite a bit."

Steiner warned against any potential upward revision to the budget cap limit, arguing that any incremental increase would have a much greater impact on the small teams.

"The best thing to do is not increase the budget because then you make the gap even bigger," he added.

"There would be no point in being here if the gap is two seconds. If you think about it, if you have got a $300 million budget and increase it by 5% for a big company, it's not a lot of money.

"But for us, the 5% is 10% and we can't do that. The bigger their budget gets, the bigger the percentage number for us gets.

"It's a very good step in the first place, but we need to see how it works, we need to see all the nuances and go from there."

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Michael Delaney

Recent Posts

Netflix extends F1 journey with Drive to Survive season 9

Netflix is keeping the Formula 1 cameras rolling, with the streaming giant confirming that Drive…

22 minutes ago

Lawson earns Mekies praise after strong Red Bull return

Laurent Mekies has given Liam Lawson a ringing endorsement after the Kiwi made the most…

2 hours ago

Vasseur responds to Ferrari drivers’ Dutch GP strategy fury

Fred Vasseur has heard the criticism. He has heard Lewis Hamilton’s frustration, Charles Leclerc’s confusion…

3 hours ago

Wolff’s shock Mercedes admission: ‘We haven’t got the money’

Toto Wolff has delivered a remarkably blunt explanation for Mercedes’ recent slide, admitting that the…

18 hours ago

Alonso says ‘more to come’ after Aston’s Dutch GP points

Fernando Alonso left Zandvoort with something Aston Martin has been desperately short of in 2026:…

19 hours ago

F1i Driver Ratings for the 2026 Dutch Grand Prix

Max Verstappen, Red Bull (DNF) – 3.5/10 The home hero’s Zandvoort send-off turned into an…

21 hours ago