Renault Formula 1 boss Cyril Abiteboul has called for driver salaries to be included within the new budget cap.
On Friday, it was finally agreed a limit of $145m will be introduced from next season with further $5m reductions over the following two seasons.
However, some key expenses are exempt from that figure including salaries and other costs for the drivers and top three employees.
In the case of Mercedes, driver salaries alone would equate to almost a third of the permitted cap if included, with Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas combining for a reported $48m per year.
And Renault, who have been criticised for the amount they stumped up to secure Daniel Ricciardo from Red Bull in 2018, believes the ever-increasing amounts paid to drivers should be addressed in the cap.
“It’s part of the debate, part of what’s on the table, [but it has] an additional complexity of legality, because we need to make sure that it’s legal, in the sense that we need to make sure that it’s enforceable,” Abiteboul said on Sky Sports.
“The extra complexity is that you have some drivers that have already very long-term contracts – so congratulations to Max [Verstappen] in that respect.
“But I think if we need to make exceptions for systems that will be healthy, and important for the sustainability of the sport, I think we still need to do it.
“We should not have one given individual, one given situation, in your current case Max’s contract or Charles [Leclerc’s] contract with Ferrari, to block a process if it is a right process.
“We think bringing a bit of rationale on driver salary when a number of people will be laid off because of the budget cap would make sense.”
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Indeed, his salary is believed to be one area of possible conflict between Hamilton and Mercedes as he negotiates a new contract, with parent company Daimler keen to cut costs.
And in the future, Verstappen too may be seeing a pay cut when his current deal expires after 2023.
“We now have a budget cap in terms of car development. Max will not be happy to hear this, but at some point, there will also be a budget cap on the drivers’ salaries. This is the next step,” he told ORF.
But as for the impact of a budget cap on F1, the Red Bull chief is hopeful.
“Even with the amount that has now been agreed, we are still talking about a lot of money,” Marko added.
“If the field is more compressed and the driver is more in the foreground, and the technology is not too advanced, then I think that this can be a very positive step for the future.”
