Coronavirus: Horner sure Liberty Media will save F1 teams in financial difficulty
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has no doubt Formula One will offer financial support to teams in need if the coronavirus pandemic stops racing going ahead in 2020.
The new season was due to start in Australia in March, but the grand prix was postponed after McLaren withdrew following a member of their team testing positive for COVID-19.
Further postponements, plus the cancellation of the Monaco Grand Prix, means the campaign is now due to begin in June in France, though that event is in doubt due to government orders against mass gatherings.
With a major revenue source drying up, F1 bosses have taken pay cuts and placed around half of their staff on furlough, while Renault, McLaren, Williams, Racing Point and Haas have also made use of the United Kingdom government's job retention scheme.
The financial pressure will increase as the suspension continues, but Horner is confident F1 owners Liberty Media will step in to make sure teams are on the grid again next year.
"It could be an enormous blow and at that point the promoter has to decide," Horner told The Observer.
"It is their business, they have to decide how do they keep these teams alive because they need teams to go racing. The Liberty guys would do whatever they can to ensure that 10 teams are on the grid and competing next year.
"In order to protect their own business, I believe they would help to facilitate, which means paying, to ensure that those teams would be around to compete next year."
Our first trip to the top step #OnThisDay in 2009 Seb crossed the finish line in P1 at the #ChineseGP to pick up our first ever victory #F1 pic.twitter.com/jpmvatDRIx
— Aston Martin Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) April 19, 2020
Arguments have been made for the budget cap – set at $175million for 2021 – to be reduced significantly, but Horner believes that to be a short-term view and thinks the re-introduction of customer cars could be better in levelling the playing field.
"Teams are competitive beasts, of course they are looking to use an angle. The cap is a discussion about competitiveness, not about money," said Horner.
"It's about trying to bring the top teams down to a level where the midfield teams feel they can compete. The reality is that whatever the level of spend there will always be teams that run at the front and teams that run at the back.
"If we were really serious about reducing the cost, particularly for the small teams, I would be in full favour of supplying for the next two years a full customer car.
"The smaller teams wouldn't need any R&D [research and development]. They would run just as race teams and they would reduce their costs enormously."
He added: "With the modern 3D photographic technology all teams utilise they are all trying to copy each other's cars anyway. Times change, things move. F1 used to have customer cars years ago. You could buy a car from March or from Ferrari and go racing.
"We need to think out of the box rather than just going round and round, beating ourselves up about numbers.
"If this is all about saving the little teams and improving their competitiveness, it would be a very difficult to argue against the logic of a small team being able to take a customer car."