Tost: 'Top teams would not have been open to this without COVID-19'

With the chaos of last year's racing looking set to continue well into 2021, AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost sees a bright spot in the situation: He believes the issues have brought teams closer together and thus provided a healthy ground for the introduction of the cost cap.

Tost explained to Autosport.com how teams pulled together in these troubled times: "Everybody realised how difficult it could become in the future. Formula 1 teams hardly work together, because everyone has their own interest, and unfortunately does not look at the big picture.”

This new attitude of teams facilitated the discussion around a cost cap, Tost goes on to say: "Regarding the cost cap, the top teams would not have been so open to reduce the amount of money which they want to spend, to $145 million for the first year, without these COVID-19 problems."

Also, the shrunken financial resources of teams created a sense of solidarity on the grid. Tost explains: "I believe that this special situation with COVID-19 opened the eyes, that there is simply less money on the table as expected.If you have less money, you can only spend the money which you have. Therefore, I think that some of my colleagues changed their minds little bit."