Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff insists he will support a budget cap in Formula 1 if the limits are “implementable”.
This week sees a crucial number of meetings to try and kick-start progress on a 2021 Concorde Agreement with F1 owners Liberty Media set to unveil proposals in London for the new regulations.
One of the reasons for the lengthy discussions, however, has been the opposition from Mercedes and Ferrari to a budget cap of between $135-150m, or around a third of their current expenditure.
Under plans previously reported, the idea would be for a three-stage introduction, reducing down to the eventual budget cap figure by 2023, something that would allow the top teams to restructure their operations.
“Mercedes certainly is interested in having a cost cap implemented, at the right levels, so it makes sense for everybody,” Wolff was quoted by F1i.com.
“Get the big teams on board in a way that is implementable and the small teams to kind of at least cap us, and make sure that we’re not running away with even higher costs every year.”
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As for a broader agreement, which will include new cars and other major overhauls in regulation, the Mercedes chief is more confident too.
“I feel that there’s some momentum in the process, and we are all keen on understanding how 2021 looks,” Wolff continued.
“Regulations are obviously another big building block and this is important to get over the line by June.
“So let’s see how next week goes, but what I hear is making me optimistic.”
And time is becoming more of a factor with less than two years to go, particularly for the smaller teams who need to plan their finances.
“Time is marching, so it will be really good to start figuring out what’s going to happen,” Racing Point boss Otmar Szafnauer told Motorsport.com.
“We’re happy with the cost cap that was proposed before and I think in the background, there are things happening, there’s a framework of how to police a cost cap. That’s all happening. So people are working on it.”
