Ross Brawn says Liberty Media does not want to ‘dumb down’ Formula 1 and undermine its bigger teams despite its desire to reduce spending costs.
Liberty completed its takeover of F1 in January, and has repeatedly expressed its desire to implement a fairer share of income once the current Concorde Agreement runs out in 2020.
Brawn, who was installed by Liberty as sporting boss after its takeover of F1, said he was keen for changes to F1’s income distribution model to help close the field up but did not want that to come at the expense of the current composition of teams.
“It is a circular process,” said Brawn of the cost-cutting procedure.
“To have a discussion about remuneration with the teams is difficult if you don’t present both sides.
“We’ve got to present how we see the sport going forward in terms of the investment that the teams make, because it’s substantial.
“I think it’s fair to say that there’s not a team in F1 that wouldn’t welcome a reduction in costs.
“One thing I’d like to say is that we don’t want to dumb F1 down. F1 still has to be aspirational for the teams.
“We don’t want all the teams to be exactly the same, in the respect that there should still be the aspirational teams, there should still be the Ferraris, the Mercedes, the Red Bulls that teams want to aspire to beat.
“But we don’t want domination. We need an environment where a team that does a really good job can do well.
“We don’t want a situation where financial power enables a team to get a dominant position, as has happened in the last few years.”
Part of the Liberty’s challenge will be convincing the biggest teams to agree to a reduction in their current prize money – with the caveat that their overheads will also reduce.
Former Honda, Brawn and Mercedes financial director Nigel Kerr – whose appointment was announced last month – has been tasked with studying current spending by teams and proposing how that could be changed change under a new rules package.
“We want to make sure that when we do come forward with our ideas, that they are very well thought out, and all the various elements have been properly sorted, discussed and are in place, so we have a complete proposal to take the sport forward,” added Brawn.
“Nigel’s task will be to help build the financial models that can demonstrate hopefully the way forward for the teams in F1.
“It’s got to be in co-operation with the FIA.
“The FIA are the regulators of our sport, and they are the final arbiter of what goes on in the sport.
“We want to supplement and support those activities, and make proposals that we think are good for the sport. “But the remuneration debate has to go hand-in-hand with how we control the costs, or the investments needed in F1.”
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