Liberty Media would like to see the gap between the front and rear of the field reduced, but they will not go as far as standardising parts within Formula 1.
Liberty’s managing director of commercial operations, Sean Bratches, says the plans for a budget cap are still being looked into, but something needs to be done to close up the field and make races less predictable.
Only three teams have won races since the hybrid era of Formula 1 began in 2014, with the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team having claimed all four Drivers’ and Constructors’ championships, with Bratches and Liberty Media hoping that restricting the budgets of the teams at the front will help give other teams the opportunities to fight towards the front of the field.
“I think if you look at the most successful sports in the world, there is a more equitable distribution of capital that creates a competitive playing field which engages fans and inserts a degree of unpredictability,” said Bratches to RACER.
“Today in Formula 1 there is very little degree of unpredictability – it’s almost certain who is going to be on the podium and who is going to be winning.
“I think while those that are investing massively in their teams are enjoying the fruits of that, it would be short-lived from a sporting standpoint and everyone would be served better if it was a more competitive grid.
“We don’t want to homogenize this sport. We want to create a degree of boundaries in which the teams can play and innovate, and those that are more proficient in exploiting the formula will do better.
“But we’re not trying to get this to a circumstance where everybody has to have the same engine or the same livery. That’s not where we’re going, but we just want to bring the back of the grid up to the front of the grid a little closer.”
