Steiner: F1 can react quickly if further cost cuts are required

During last year’s spring shutdown, F1 took a series of emergency measures, including postponing the new technical regulations by a year, freezing chassis components for 2021, and lowering the budget cap.

Steiner believes that 2021 already looks a lot better financially, with F1 planning a 23-race calendar and spectators expected at the majority of races. He remains hopeful that, with improved revenue streams, no emergency changes will be required.

“There’s no point to bandage your head yet if it isn’t broken,” he told Autosport.

“I think we have to wait a little bit and see what is actually going to happen. It didn’t actually take long last year, and then you know what hit the fan – and there were big changes, and it was done very quickly.

“I think everyone is prepared for doing a step, if it’s needed. It doesn’t look like it’s needed, so let’s stay optimistic, but if it’s needed we learned a lot last year, that we needed to react quickly, to get out in a good position.

“If you think about it, last year was the year the pandemic hit, the Concorde needed to be signed, and everything was done, we still have 10 teams here. Nobody bailed out or was forced to bail out.”

Steiner says that the new Concorde Agreement and the budget cap have transformed the prospects for the smaller teams.

“Absolutely, I said a few times, without the new Concorde, without the new distribution model, I don’t think that we would still be here," he said.

“The big teams have maybe more fixed costs than we have got, because we are a pretty small team.

“We are not completely at the budget cap, but before they had 100% more. Now they’ve got maybe 10% more, which makes it close.

“We still need to do a good job, and straight away they have so much more resource just rolling into the budget cap. They still have an advantage.

“But I hope in a short time, it will level the playing field. That would already be fantastic.”