Tost: 'Top teams would not have been open to this without COVID-19'

With the chaos of last year's racing looking set to continue well into 2021, AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost sees a bright spot in the situation: He believes the issues have brought teams closer together and thus provided a healthy ground for the introduction of the cost cap.

Tost explained to Autosport.com how teams pulled together in these troubled times: "Everybody realised how difficult it could become in the future. Formula 1 teams hardly work together, because everyone has their own interest, and unfortunately does not look at the big picture.”

Room for discussion on cost cap

This new attitude of teams facilitated the discussion around a cost cap, Tost goes on to say: "Regarding the cost cap, the top teams would not have been so open to reduce the amount of money which they want to spend, to $145 million for the first year, without these COVID-19 problems."

Also, the shrunken financial resources of teams created a sense of solidarity on the grid. Tost explains: "I believe that this special situation with COVID-19 opened the eyes, that there is simply less money on the table as expected.If you have less money, you can only spend the money which you have. Therefore, I think that some of my colleagues changed their minds little bit."