Formula One’s new owners want to impose strict budget limits after collective spending rocketed last season

FORMULA ONE’S new owners want to impose strict budget limits after the teams’ collective spending rocketed past £2billion last season.

Liberty Media agreed a deal worth £6billion to purchase the sport from holding firm CVC in September.

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And the Americans believe that limiting the teams’ spending power will help make the sport more competitive... and exciting.

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Liberty want to stop the big-boys from spending close to £400million each to develop their cars and run their teams over a season.

They believe that by implementing cost-caps it will help even out the grid and stop the domination enjoyed by Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes and Red Bull over the past seven years.

Liberty also hope it will prevent the smaller teams from financial collapse given that Caterham and Marussia have both folded in the past two years.

SunSport understands that Liberty chief Chase Carey will speak to team bosses in the new year to outline the company’s proposals for the future.

However, it is likely to get short shrift from the larger teams, who threatened to quit in 2009 when talk of a budget cap was first mentioned.

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Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne does not think a cap can work in F1 — but he admits costs do need to be reduced.

He said: “The interventions that there have been up to now, from limitations on the cost of supplying power units to the reduction of wind-tunnel hours, have been totally ineffective.

“The reality is Formula One is an extremely expensive sport.

“There are factory teams from Renault and Mercedes, big companies that can concentrate on development in a broader way, and this, for costs, becomes very dangerous.

“I accept the goal of reducing costs but much depends on us and how we adapt to these demands. But I don’t believe a budget cap can work.

“The problem is that, with the restrictions, we will end up working in very limited areas to make the car competitive.”

Despite having one of the largest budgets, Ferrari endured another miserable campaign in 2016, with Marchionne admitting the team need to resolve their problems for next season.

And the Italian-Canadian says that while the sport has tried to save costs in the past, his team have not saved a penny.

He added: “When I look at old reports — ten years and even further back — I deduce that Ferrari has never held back when it comes to spending.

“Then, if the budget is used well or badly, I don’t know.

“Despite all these interventions by the FIA to try to limit spending, the teams have found other ways to spend.

“This is the old problem for all those who try to impose limits on car development: if areas are left open, spending concentrates in this area.

“If I look at the last four of five years, we haven’t saved a euro, we have simply redistributed our spending to other areas.

“In principle it’s very noble but, then, the effect never gives the necessary results.”

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