McLaren‘s Zak Brown has urged Formula 1’s owners, Liberty Media, to consider what is best for the sport when deciding on a future rules package and not give in to pressure from major car manufacturers.
Brown has urged Liberty to step up its efforts to get a deal in place for the new regulations that come into effect in 2021. And while Scuderia Ferrari has threatened to quit the sport if it’s not happy with the new rules, Brown believes it would be wrong for Liberty to pander to the sport’s major manufacturers.
“I think Liberty needs to focus on what is best for the sport and what is best for the fans,” said Brown, during a lunch with various media at McLaren’s Woking factory on Thursday.
“If that means a team or a manufacturer doesn’t support that, then they need to be prepared to recognise that they are not going to make everyone happy.
“Their centering needs to be on what is best for the sport. I would rather lose one [team], replace them and have 10 teams, than have one or two teams [only] in the championship.”
In similar vein to Ferrari, Mercedes has threatened to pull its Formula 1 team from the sport if it too is unhappy with the new rules. When asked by motorsport.com if there was a danger the sport could lose both Ferrari and Mercedes, Brown said:
“I think that is highly unlikely, but I think anything is possible. Therefore we need to land on a set of rules that allow those that are looking at the sport to be able to come in.
“In the unexpected and hopefully highly unlikely situation that they [Mercedes and Ferrari] would leave, the sport needs to go on.
“I think Ferrari is a unique case because they are Ferrari, but we have lost BMW, we have lost Toyota, and we have lost Honda before. We’ve all seen manufacturers come and go in the sport and it has always survived.
“So we have got to write rules moving forward about what is best for the sport, not what is best for the manufacturers.”
