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Sauber pushing for budget cap

Monisha Kaltenborn: "Overall I think it would make Formula One more interesting" © Sutton Images

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Sauber CEO Monisha Kaltenborn believes a budget cap is necessary if Formula One teams want to remain sustainable, and reckons it would also be good for competition.

The FIA attempted to impose a budget cap in 2009 but the teams rejected the idea, electing to control costs under the self-imposed Resource Restriction Agreement (RRA). However, Kaltenborn believes expenditure is still too high among the teams and that a budget cap is the only way to control it in the long-term.

"We started it with the Resource Restriction Agreement, and that in itself was already an important step, but of course it is far from the only one you need," she told Formula One's official website. "We now have to evolve it to the next step, and in my view the future should indeed lie in some kind of budget cap under which each and every team could do what they want to, because we all have different strengths.

"Looking at our team, for example, we have a good infrastructure and a good wind tunnel, so it would allow us to benefit from that. Others have other assets. Overall I think it would make Formula One more interesting as it would also mean that we would all use different strategies and take different approaches to the business and the sport."

Kaltenborn believes an option for a budget cap should be made part of the next Concorde Agreement - the document which binds the teams, the FIA and the sport's commercial side together.

"I think that we should have the next step [towards a budget cap] already in place for next season and take it from there," she added. "Next season for me should already see a major step forward in the financial feasibility of a team. When the current Concorde Agreement comes to an end at the end of this season, I think it would be a good time to set some kind of rules."

Formula One Management revealed in Malaysia that the majority of F1 teams had agreed terms on the next Concorde Agreement, including McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull, and Kaltenborn confirmed that Sauber was also part of the agreement.

"We have reached an agreement with the commercial rights' holder," she added. "I will not talk about any further details, but we have our agreement."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.