Formula 1 CEO Chase Carey insists the vision of Liberty Media for more competitive racing will not lead to a standardising of the cars that race, following criticism of the manufacturers.
The new leadership has started to put forward ideas for how it sees the sport in the future, with changes to the engine formula from 2021 and an effort to address the financial problems whether it be the inequality between teams and the cost of operating as a whole.
Part of any cost-saving plan, which is currently being discussed, is to look at parts which can be standardised to stop the expense of development and try to avoid significant differences in performance of certain elements team-to-team.
But that hasn’t sat well with the likes of Ferrari who have threatened to quit F1, comparing the direction they see Liberty taking to that of NASCAR.
“Actually I don’t think we have a differing view to Ferrari,” Carey was quoted by Reuters in response. ”I‘m not trying to be derogatory towards NASCAR, but we don’t plan to be NASCAR either.
“We don’t want to standardise the cars. We don’t want 20 identical cars going around the track and the only difference is the driver, we want all the teams to have the ability to do what they do to create cars that are unique to them — unique engines to them, unique bodies to them.”
Nevertheless, he insisted F1 can’t continue with the current three-team monopoly that it is at the front of the grid and that a more level playing field is needed not just for the current midfield outfits but to attract new teams on the grid.
“We want teams to compete to win, but we want all the teams to have a chance,” he said. It’s never going to be equal, there are going to be favourites that evolve, but over time we want the teams to feel they all have a fighting chance.
“Sports are built on the unexpected, so we do want a sport that can have the unexpected … you need competition, you need the unknown, you need great finishes, you need great stories and great dramas. We’ve got to create that.”
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Another push has been to limit spending through the introduction of a budget cap and though progress on that appears slow, Carey claims a consensus is growing, with the details needing to be thrashed out.
“I think directionally there’s broad agreement about the direction we’re talking about,” he told Autosport. “We obviously have to get into the specifics, and in the details, there will be differing views.
“It’s [our job] to find the right compromises so that everybody feels they are much better off, it’s a fair proposal, and it makes the sport much healthier.
“That’s what we’ve got to do, to work through to find the right compromises and trade-offs but as a direction, I think we have broad-based support for the direction of all the initiatives we’re talking about, and the goals of those initiatives, and the opportunity inherent in those initiatives.”
