McLaren team boss Zak Brown has weighed in on the $145 million budget caps that Formula 1 teams will have to work within.
This does not include driver salaries and the top three earners for the team.
Till now, there has been unrestricted spending for teams on the grid. This has led to the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari establishing a huge gulf between themselves and other teams over the years.
Smaller teams like Haas and Williams often struggle to be competitive owing to their thinner pockets.
“The FIA, the teams and Formula 1 have been working continuously on defining it and regulating it, I am sure it will be learning from year one and it won’t be perfect,” Brown said.
“I think they will get it right and it will achieve what we were hoping to achieve which is a more level playing field.”
Brown spoke about how McLaren has had to make some adjustments as it was previously spending more than the new limit.
“We were spending beyond the cap previously so we have made some adjustments to come down to the cap. There will be learnings this year and I think there will be discrepancies, but we will move on,” he said.
“I think Andreas [Seidl, team principal] and the team have the full resources to run at the cap so spending at the cap and spending on total performance is a goal.
“We are confident the cap will achieve for the sport what we hoped it will achieve but I am sure there will be learnings throughout the year,” Brown said.
McLaren produced a fine run last year to end the constructors’ standings in third place. With Mercedes power units this year, it is possible that the team will be able to maintain its competitiveness, if not increase its strength.
Daniel Ricciardo’s arrival also puts them in a better position since last year, with the Australian coming in with banks of experience and more importantly, race wins.