Ecclestone backs Wolff over budget cap

Bernie Ecclestone has backed Toto Wolff’s position over the proposed F1 budget cap.

Amid tense negotiations between Liberty Media, the FIA and the teams over the 2021 Concorde Agreement and rules, the parties got together in London on Tuesday.

Afterwards, F1’s official website declared that the meetings moved the sport "a step closer" to agreeing to rules, governance, income distribution and "cost controls" for the future.

Part of the ’cost controls’ is a proposed budget cap, and Mercedes boss Wolff said recently that the German marque supports it.

But he also said: "The challenge is how to control spending, because the teams are structured very differently. For example, we will need to agree penalties in the event that a team deliberately breaks the rules.

"We see the biggest challenges with the implementation," Wolff added.

Recently, Wolff met in the Swiss ski resort town of Gstaad with former Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo, Racing Point owner Lawrence Stroll, and former F1 supremo Ecclestone.

Wolff said any talk of a breakaway series was "nonsense", and Racing Point also rubbished the reports.

But Ecclestone, who admitted that a breakaway had been discussed, seemed to back Wolff’s position over the feasibility of the budget cap.

He told Auto Bild: "In my time, Jean Todt worked on the budget cap, but how can you control for example whether Mercedes does research for formula one at the main headquarters in Stuttgart?"