Budget cap: Todt confident Ferrari won't resort to veto right

FIA president Jean Todt is confident Ferrari won't resort to its almighty veto power to derail Formula 1's budget cap negotiations.

To mitigate the financial effects of the current coronavirus crisis on the sport, Formula 1, the teams and the FIA decided recently to cut next year's incoming budget from $175m to $145m.

But the abatement has sparked a fierce debate among F1's constituents with the sport's smaller teams arguing in favour of an additional reduction, with McLaren lobbying for an extreme $100m cost cap threshold.

However, Ferrari is resisting calls for any additional curtailments, arguing that it would lead to significant and unacceptable layoffs in Maranello.

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Teams were scheduled to vote this week on next year's final $145m number and the sliding-scale revisions that will follow from 2022. However, the vote - perceived as a mere formality - was delayed.

Has Ferrari brandished the ominous specter of its veto right?

"Don't be provocative or negative," Todt told Sky F1's Craig Slater. "I don't have any fears on that.

"I hope that everybody will have the good sense of responsibility in the present situation to help us to achieve what is needed for the best of Formula 1, the competitors, the promoters and the governing body, the fan.

"That's what we try to achieve. I do respect Ferrari for their history and their contribution and I am sure they are willing to keep at a high level their contribution to what we are building."

Todt, a big backer of slashing the sport's massive costs, believes the economic changes forced upon F1 by the coronavirus pandemic offer Grand Prix racing an opportunity to transform itself for a better future although the Frenchman did not play down the difficulties that lie ahead.

"What we are going to present for the future is going in the right direction," said Todt.

"Clearly, we are going through an unprecedented economic situation and that it is why there is an opportunity to take a direction we would not have taken.

"I really hope that everybody will be able to stay on board and in that sense the purpose of the new global regulations is to give as much chance for all the competitors to remain in the sport in the future.

"It will be the post-Covid-19 situation, where it will have hurt and damaged a lot of manufacturers, competitors, private teams sporting federations, sponsors and media so we will need to see how we can all work together to be as supportive as possible towards each other.

"That will be the next step."

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