Abiteboul slams $175m budget cap figure

The F1 teams are divided over Liberty Media’s handling of the 2021 rules reform.

Firstly, it emerges that the F1 owner has settled on a US $175 million annual budget cap per team for the period between 2021 and 2025.

Excluded are driver, engine, travel and marketing costs.

"This is not a new start," an angry Cyril Abiteboul, the team boss at Renault, told Auto Motor und Sport. "The plan was that all teams should be profitable."

Also telling is that the budget cap amount is supported by Toto Wolff, boss of F1’s biggest spender, Mercedes.

"We have accepted it for 2021. I agree with this step," he said at a media event in Montreal.

Also being roundly criticised are the new parc ferme rules and the decision to scrap Thursday ’media day’.

Outspoken 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve told Italy’s Automoto that the 2021 rules are going in "the opposite direction" compared to what F1 really needs.

"Total stupidity," the Canadian said when asked about the draft 2021 rules which are being talked about in the Montreal paddock.

"It’s the usual artificial way of doing things," Villeneuve said. "Where is the component that makes you see the drivers as heroes again?

"It’s a vision of racing that limits the drivers and the imagination. Liberty Media has an American vision of F1 but they are doing everything wrong."