Budget cap not close to agreement - Marko

Dr Helmut Marko has slammed the brakes on reports that F1 is now close to reaching an agreement about a 2021 budget cap.

In recent days, it was reported that at the January meeting of the strategy group, the big teams basically agreed with Liberty Media and the FIA about the imposition of maximum annual budgets of $185m (2021), $160m (2022) and $135m (2023).

But Red Bull’s Marko told Auto Bild: "We are still a long way from an agreement.

"Basically, we agree with Ferrari and Mercedes in terms of numbers, but the other teams are still very critical.

"We also need to discuss which departments of the racing team fall under the budget limit. Nothing is clear," the Austrian insists.

Marko said there is also a lot of uncertainty about how the budget cap will be policed, especially at carmaker teams like Ferrari and Mercedes.

"Controlling it is very difficult to accomplish," he said. "How do you know which computer is working for the car company and which is working for formula one?"