Horner calls for “ambitious” deadline to sort 2021 F1 plans

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner wants Formula 1 to be “ambitious” with its deadline to nail down the 2021 agreements for its sport shake-up triggered by Liberty Media’s future vision for the sport.

Before Friday practice at the Bahrain Grand Prix, every F1 team and the FIA were presented with Liberty’s five-point plan for its future ideas regarding engine changes, cost caps and regulations beyond the end of the 2020 season when the current Concorde Agreements conclude.

Horner was largely supportive of what the F1 commercial rights holders laid out in its Bahrain meeting but wants defined rules and agreements settled “within the next couple of months” in order to give teams enough time to prepare for the next generation of F1 in 2021.

“It needs to be done within the next couple of months, but that’s ambitious,” Horner told Sky Sports F1. “There’s some big topics to deal with there: engines, budget caps and redistribution of prize fund.

“It’s ambitious but they’ve got to go for it. At least they’ve put a target down to say we want this nailed within a couple of months.

“They are not keen to conduct all the negotiation through the media and this gives you the bare bones but the bottom line is this is going to have a much bigger effect on three or four teams running at the front of the grid.

“The guys from P4 downwards are potentially going to get a lot of upside. So you should see some fairly happy faces down that end of the paddock and some bigger challenges at this end of the paddock.”

Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer tweeted his delight at the Liberty announcement on Friday, which could hint at Red Bull’s potential future engine deal having been keen on an independent power unit manufacturer coming into F1 in 2021.

Red Bull has endured a turbulent relationship with current engine supplier Renault and is keen to strengthen its technical ties to Aston Martin after the British marquee became its title sponsor for the start of the 2018 F1 season.

“You may have seen the CEO of Aston Martin’s tweet, he’s fully supportive of what’s just been announced,” Horner said. “There are manufacturers that are looking on the outskirts on F1, wanting to come in but the way that the way the regulations are currently written is that it’s prohibitive.

“The drawbridge is up, it’s a question of getting the drawbridge down, getting the costs down and getting the spectacle right.”

Red Bull's existing Renault engine deal had been set to conclude at the end of the 202o F1 season but after Toro Rosso's messy divorce from the French manufacturer during its switch to Honda it has been reported Renault could aim to end its contract with the Milton Keynes-based squad at the end of this season.