The delay comes after the FIA and the 10  participating F1 teams come to a unanimous decision that the rule changes would not be tolerable due to the impact of Covid-19. It is easy to understand why this decision was made at the beginning of last year, with high demands for cost, manpower, and production, it was looking out of hand to produce an all-new car design that implements the latest rules. 

These 2021 regulations which are said to be one of the biggest technical implementations in sporting history were made to significantly change the look of the car and rethink the way downforce is created to make close, competitive, wheel-to-wheel racing a lot safer and easier. Nonetheless, the biggest rule change would not be on the track but rather in the form of the cost-saving measures in place aimed to even the playing field for a new era of F1. The cost cap for all teams is said to be $145m for the 2021  season, which will then be reduced to $140m in 2022 and eventually $135m from 2023 onwards. For teams such as Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull this reduction will be a massive cut from their previous budgets which are estimated to be more than $400m annually. Whereas the remaining teams only spending between $150m and $250m per year. 

Reigning F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton was not in support of the cap, “I do think that the  drivers here are, naturally, the stars of the sport,” he said in an interview in February of 2021,  “It is a multi-billion-dollar sport, and they should be rewarded for what they do bring to it.” This comes as the cost cut will potentially reduce his and many other drivers’ yearly earnings. 

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“This is potentially devastating to teams, and if [it is devastating] to enough teams – which doesn’t have to mean more than two – then very threatening to F1 as a whole,” he said.

Cost-saving plans will be discussed at a meeting of F1 bosses on Monday. But the teams are divided over how best to safeguard the sport.

Brown, speaking in an exclusive interview with BBC Sport, believes the $175m (£143m) budget cap, scheduled to come into force in 2021, needs to be lowered significantly, or the sport risks a potential disaster.

“Could I see – through what is going on right now in the world if we don’t tackle this situation head on very aggressively – two teams disappearing? Yeah,” said Brown, the chief executive officer of McLaren Racing.

“In fact, I could see four teams disappearing if this isn’t handled the right way.”

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