Haas seeks for ‘ground rules’ from Liberty for new F1 era

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner wants to see Formula 1 owners Liberty Media lay out its core rules for the future of the sport around a potential team cost cap and prize money distribution ahead of the new era in the sport.

After assessing Liberty’s maiden year in charge of the sport, Steiner has been encouraged by the initial steps made throughout 2017 regarding fan engagement and social media but wants a switch of focus to the ‘bigger picture’.

Steiner and a number of F1 team bosses are set for a presentation from Liberty on his future vision for the sport and the Haas chief is eager to understand the finer details of a potential cost cap for teams and how the prize money could become restructured.

“I think they want to change a lot of things which is the right thing to do we just need to see the priorities,” Steiner said. “It is more about getting the ground rules established and the details we can work out in the next two or three years like the cost cap and how high is it. Do we have a more equal distribution of funds and what is it, instead of talking about how the front wing looks.

“It is more important to talk about the big picture than the small one as we can change that pretty quickly but the big picture is where the difficulties happen to get people agreeing. On a front wing if we bang our heads together we can agree on it to some extent but to agree to a lot of millions it is more difficult.”

Steiner also says he only expects a rough outline on any potential payment restructuring and financial changes this month with a final decision not predicted until next year with the switches set to be introduced from 2021.

“There is a broad idea but it needs to be worked on,” he said. “I think Liberty will work diligently and I hope by the middle of next year we’ll have some answers.”