Steiner: "In good times, F1 shouldn't come back on the budget cap"

One of the most important changes for Formula 1 is the introduction of the budget cap, which has now been set at $145 million. Later on, the budget cap will drop a little more and the primary goal of these regulations is to make the sport more competitive. In these difficult times, we must also look to the future and Guenther Steiner hopes that the budget cap will not be forgotten too soon.

Talking to Motorsport.com in the #thinking forwards series, Haas' team boss says: "We came together and decided on a budget cap, a lower one and it is a good initiative." Steiner sees this as a good solution for the medium term, but also for the long term because Formula 1 is very vulnerable as is proven with the corona crisis.

With the current pandemic, which is a long way from being over, teams have lost a lot of income. This makes it a good thing that the cars will be cheaper in the future. "We decided very quickly that we take the car forward from this year to next year… and the 2022 regulations should make the car cheaper."

"I think we learned already some [from the pandemic]," says Steiner referring to recent decisions. "Now, we need to make sure that we don't forget about and then, when the good times come, the first thing we do is, 'oh let's discuss about taking the budget cap up again, or take it away'."

In other words, Steiner argues that they have come this far in more difficult times and that it must stay that way. This is because good times are not necessarily a reason to change rules. By the way, he doesn't expect this to happen, but he wanted to say it anyway and he will watch out for it.

Or in his words: "I don't think it will happen. But I will keep it in my mind that we shouldn't be doing it. And that is how we come out stronger."