F1 will save at-risk teams to avoid crisis: Horner

LONDON • Red Bull team principal Christian Horner believes that the prospect of losing a struggling team from the Formula One grid would be such an "enormous blow" that the motor sport's owners would have to launch a financial bailout.

The world championship has yet to get under way owing to the coronavirus pandemic, with nine races either cancelled or postponed.

The French Grand Prix, scheduled for June 28, is also in doubt as is the Aug 30 Belgium Grand Prix due to extended bans on all mass gatherings in both countries.

A minimum of eight grands prix must be staged in order for a championship to be valid, but there is no guarantee any races can be held this year, given how unstable the Covid-19 situation is.

With no races on the horizon, and TV and advertising revenue drying up, there are fears that the weakest among the 10 teams could go out of business.

However, Horner believes it will not come to that as F1's owners, Liberty Media, will step in and save smaller teams from going under.

"At that point, the promoter has to decide," he told The Guardian on Saturday. "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."

On F1's attempt to further lower the budget ceiling - the teams have already agreed to cut next year's cap, originally set at US$175 million (S$249 million) - to US$150 million because of the financial hit, Horner felt smaller teams were trying to take advantage of the issue to level the playing field.

"Teams are competitive beasts, of course they are looking to use an angle," he added. "The cap is a discussion about competitiveness, not about money.

"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."

The top-three teams, Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull, who collectively spend more than US$400 million annually, remain opposed to a proposal to reduce the cap further to US$125 million, while McLaren has even pushed for a US$100 million limit.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE