Brown: McLaren welcomes the cost cap

In the wake of this McLaren chief Zak Brown has weighed in with his opinion, perhaps to sustain the momentum of a crucial discussion pertaining to the future direction of the sport.

Brown said in an interview, "We welcome the cost cap. We had a very productive meeting with Formula 1. I do think the current direction of travel of Formula 1, if not changed, is a very difficult environment for independent racing teams. Now what you have is Mercedes and Ferrari, who have two other team affiliations."

"So while it's very impressive what Haas has been able to do with their level of resources and human capital, I also don't think it's a coincidence that Ferrari is as competitive as they are. I think that relationship has gone both ways in terms of benefitting each other."

"So if the sport goes down the path of unlimited budgets and partnering up, that's what you need to do to be competitive. Fortunately, Liberty is going to be changing that direction in due course which gives us optimism for our future."

The chasm between the big teams and the 'smaller' teams, McLaren included in the latter, is massive and growing as the 'smaller' teams simply cannot compete with the manufacturer outfits.

Brown explained, "You look at Mercedes and Ferrari, and they have 200, 300 more people than we do. Sitting here right now, I think we need to work better to work faster. I don't think we need to take people out of the system."

"I think what we are not doing is working at maximum capacity relative to the amount of human capital and resources that we have at our disposal," added the McLaren chief.

Originally Liberty Media were pushing a $150-million annual budget cap which did not cover driver salaries, highest paid non-driver salary and marketing.

Exactly what the cost cap will amount to and what 'expenses' will be included and excluded are still unknown, while little detail emerged from the high-level meeting ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix weekend.