03/07/2018
NEWS STORY
As the sport awaits details of its owners plans for it post-2020, the engine regulations and such things as the budget cap and revenue share yet to be proposed, far less agreed, Red Bull boss Christian Horner believes that Liberty Media must work together with the FIA or risk "vanilla" regulations.
"Liberty's biggest challenge is how to address the future, how to address 2021," says the Briton. "The problem, and the risks that I see, is if the FIA and the promoter aren't fully aligned, we end up with compromises and vanilla-type regulations.
"I think there needs to be a real clarity going forward as to what the sport is going to be, what are the regulations going to be, that both parties ultimately have to buy into?
"Liberty have paid $8billion for this sport," he continued. "They've got to turn it into something that's even more attractive. That's fantastic racing.
"Obviously there are cost issues, there's revenue issues that need dealing with," he admits. "The FIA, obviously as the governing body, they've got to be fully-aligned with that, and what concerns us is discussions of where things are going with engines, where things are going with chassis regulations. Everything seems to be getting watered down somewhat from what the initial concept is. So, I think the next 500 days are going to be very telling for life, post-2020."
Asked if he too fears that unless Liberty and the FIA completely agree, the regulations could end up "vanilla", not for the first time, Toto Wolff admitted that he doesn't completely agree with his Red Bull counterpart.
"If you look at the objectives, Christian and mine are maybe a little bit different," he admitted. "We would like to have a little bit more emphasis on the power unit and Christian on the chassis, but that maybe changes. But I think transparency and a clear path is important.
"We need to know what's happening in 2021, what the regs look like on the power unit side and on the chassis side in order to get things moving and avoid a cost escalation, a cost rush last minute. That is important.
"I hope that with this week's meeting, we have a little bit more understanding and input and then we see where it ends up," he added, referring to Wednesday's meeting of the strategy group.