Red Bull boss Christian Horner has backed Formula 1 owners Liberty Media to do “whatever they can” to keep all 10 teams on the grid.
With the sport unable to go racing yet this year due to the coronavirus, concerns are growing over the financial health of smaller teams who depend on the revenue given by the commercial rights holder.
Indeed, McLaren CEO Zak Brown has suggested as many as four squads could collapse if sufficient measures aren’t taken.
And Horner believes the possible impact of that means maintaining the current grid number would be in Liberty’s best interest.
“It could be an enormous blow and at that point, the promoter has to decide,” he told The Guardian. “It is their business, they have to decide how do they keep these teams alive because they need teams to go racing.
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“The Liberty guys would do whatever they can to ensure that 10 teams are on the grid and competing next year.
“In order to protect their own business I believe they would help to facilitate, which means paying, to ensure that those teams would be around to compete next year.”
Currently, a range of cost-cutting measures are being discussed to try and help those smaller teams, with a lot of focus on the budget cap.
An informal agreement is thought to be in place to reduce the original figure of $175m to $130m by 2022, but McLaren particularly has been pushing for that number to be $100m.
Red Bull, along with Ferrari, is understood to be blocking that idea, however.
“Teams are competitive beasts, of course they are looking to use an angle,” Horner said, suggesting McLaren may have other motives.
“The cap is a discussion about competitiveness, not about money. It’s about trying to bring the top teams down to a level where the midfield teams feel they can compete.
“The reality is that whatever the level of spend there will always be teams that run at the front and teams that run at the back.”
