Formula 1 CEO Chase Carey isn’t pre-empting support for the new 2021 regulations ahead of a vote on Thursday.
On deadline day for a final agreement, Liberty Media unveiled the all-new car design being introduced the year after next and confirmed ratification for the new rules had been granted by the FIA’s World Motorsport Council.
The next step is gaining support from teams and other stakeholders for their plan and, despite the close co-operation that has taken place throughout the process, Carey admits that is not guaranteed.
“I never want to guess a vote. We feel good about the vote,” he said in a conference call and was quoted by Crash.net.
“We’ve gone through a long process and engaged with the teams. We took the World Motorsport Council through what’s being voted on earlier this month. I guess I am hopeful and expecting the vote to be approved, but at the end of the day, you don’t control votes.
“I think having it done is positive. I don’t know that it’s a game-changing positive. I think people believe that we’ve been making headway, it’s been a constructive process, but it’s never done until it’s done.”
“I think it’s a positive step to go forward,” he stated.
“No matter how much we feel we’re in a good place, we’ve had an agreement with the teams for a long time on the goals we are trying to achieve here. When you’ve got 10 teams, every team has its own twist and turn on specifics.
“But I think it’s a positive step. It isn’t like we have a bunch of things backed up that are awaiting this, but in terms of momentum going forward and looking to the future, it’s an important and positive step.”
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However, some team bosses remain sceptical about the new rules with Red Bull’s Christian Horner confirming a bid to delay their introduction.
“With hindsight, we would have been better bringing the cap in first for 2021 and taking more time to develop these regulations and bring them in for 2022,” he said in Mexico.
“It’s impossible to bring that cap forward into 2020. You’ll never achieve agreement on it.
“The budget cap is ultimately a sensible thing for F1 but the interim period of 2020 with the current regulations we have as teams built up for 2021 with the unrestricted spend making it a very expensive year.
“An opportunity has perhaps been lost to have had that process more controlled under the cap, and delay these regulations and evolve them.”
Interestingly, despite financial concern, Horner’s McLaren counterpart Andreas Seidl believes a delay would be pointless.
“We like what is on the table now, what’s coming in on the technical side, sporting side and financial side,” said their team principal Andreas Seidl.
“We’re just waiting now for 31 October, to see the publication of these regulations, and see what we have to work to for 2021 onwards.”
Well, that day is here so let’s see how it plays out!