Formula One will go ahead and introduce the much-discussed budget cap in 2021 at a heavily reduced figure of $145million as a direct response t🌃he financial pressures established by the coronavirus, says Ross Bra♌wn.

The b𒉰udget cap initiative forms the basis of the new c🌳ommercial rights agreement to be put in place at the end of the conclusion of the 2020 season, with a provisional figure of $175million put forward - excluding driver salaries and marketing - in line with a radical overhaul of the technical regulations.

However, the original plans have gone awry as a resu🌄lt of the coronavirus crisis, which has seen the first ten rounds of the 2020 F1 season 🐲either postponed or cancelled (Australia, Monaco, France).

As such, teams entered back into cruꦆnch talks to get that figure reduced in a bid to assure the future of the smaller t🌼eams currently losing out in the absence of racing.

A new agreement hinged on the terms being agreed by Ferrari, which has actively campaigned against the idea of a budget cap and reportedly threatened to quit F1 if the figur♎e was reduced to a🔯s low as $100 million as had been proposed by McLaren. 

However, It appears the latest meet𝐆ing between F1 and the teams has established a breakthrough with Ross Brawn telling Sky Sports F1 the $145 million budget cap is now in place with plans to incrementally lower it with each season.

“The budget cap initial objectives were a more comp🐼etitive field and I🀅 think with the situation we have now the sustainability, the economic sustainability, of Formula 1 is a priority. That counts as much for the big teams as it does for the small teams.

“The message is clear we’ve got to cut costs,” he continued. “We started at $175 (million), that was a long battle to get it there, and wi🐬th the current crisis we are now going to start at 145 and the discussion really is how much further down we can drive the next few🌼 years.”

Significantly, Brawn says ther🔥e are also agreements in place to assure a fairer distribution of the commercial revenue after criticism over the years that it is too heavily weighted in favour of the already well-funded top teams.

Though the budget cap remains on the table, F1 has decided to defer the introduced of the new-look cars until 2022 with only minor adjustments🐠 to this year’s c♐ars being permitted for 2021.

It remains to be seen how Ferrari will react to the latest change in the regulations with Mattia Binotto arguing it was a ‘dema🤪nding request’ compared with the original $175 million figure that was tabled.

He went on to say If it was to get even lower, Ferrari ‘would not want to be put in a position of having to look at other further options for deploying our racing DNA’ though 🀅he later denied this was a veilꦍed threat at quitting the sport.

The budget cap has been a long debated proposal over the years, not least when the commercial agreement is up for renewal, with a mixed response from teams who feel it is either 🍃necessary to ensure the survival of the sport an others that feel it cannot be policed effectively to prevent performance-gaining loopholes.