Principal of Scuderia Mattia Binotto threatens Ferrari will quit Formula One over COVID-19 cancellations

The principal of the Scuderia Ferrari Mattia Binotto has said the team will reconsider their availability in Formula One shortly if austere budget caps are imposed.

Formula One has come to a halt with no races conducted in this year's championship, thus leading to major hit in their finances. So the F1 authorities had decided in cutting down on team budget but Ferrari boss is against this decision as he feels cutting down the budget will risk depreciating F1 as the zenith of motorsport.

In 2019, before the pandemic hit the sport, teams had agreed to a budget cap of $175 million for 2021. But after the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the sport has come to a halt. With nine races being cancelled, this year the championship is on the verge of being called off.

After the last week meeting between the FIA and the teams, a budget on $145 million was set for 2021 and $130 million for 2022 was proposed. But the teams did not agree with the budget scale. Binotto, who heads the oldest Formula One team threatened that Ferrari will walk away from the sport.

Mattia Binotto told the Guardian: “The $145m level is already a new and demanding request compared to what was set out last June. It cannot be attained without further significant sacrifices, especially in terms of our human resources. If it was to get even lower, we would not want to be put in a position of having to look at other further options for deploying our racing DNA.”

Ferrari is the oldest team in the sport, who has been competing in the sport since the first championship in 1950.

“F1, we have all sorts of teams with different characteristics,” Binotto said. “They operate in different countries, under different legislation and with their ways of working. Therefore it is not simple and straightforward to make structural changes simply by linearly cutting costs.

“We are well aware that F1 and indeed the whole world right now is going through a particularly difficult time because of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this is not the time to react in a hurry as there’s a risk of making decisions on the back of this emergency without clearly evaluating all the consequences.”

Binotto said that Ferrari has represented the country (Italy, which is one of the worst-hit nations in terms of coronavirus pandemic) and it is their "ethical duty" to look after their personals and avoid large scale job losses. He even stressed that this company is way more than just making profits.

Team Red Bull's principal Christian Horner also did not agree to the new budget planned.