F1 Commission Meeting Held In The Next 10 Days, Haas Team Boss Still Hesitating About Sprint Race Plan For 2022 Season

JAKARTA - Haas team boss Guenther Steiner has expressed doubts whether Formula 1's plans to hold six sprint races in 2022 will work, as big teams lobby to raise the sport's budget limit.

F1 has tested the sprint race format at three Grand Prix last season, with qualifying moved up to Friday and a short 100km race held on Saturday to determine where to start the Grand Prix the following day.

They then plan to expand the format to six Grands Prix this season.

"I don't know what exactly happened," Steiner said on the sidelines of a virtual press conference on Friday, as quoted by Antara from Reuters, after the US-based team showed off a digital look of their 2022 car.

"We will have a Formula 1 Commission meeting in the next 10 days and then we will see further where we are progressing on that.

"I think we will have three sprint races but... I don't know that. So we'll see where it goes, but I don't have an answer yet."

F1 last season imposed budget restrictions for each team in order to create a more equal competitive ecosystem.

Each team's budget is set to not exceed US$145 million in 2021, and will be cut again to US$140 million for this season.

The three big teams in F1 want the limit to be raised citing more sprint races being held this season where they will also have to get used to new cars designed to follow regulations that underwent a major overhaul this year.

McLaren boss Zak Brown briefly mentioned teams lobbying to increase budget limits in an open letter published on the team's official website last month.

F1 team bosses will propose a compromise at a meeting of the Formula 1 Commission on February 14 to keep the budget cap in place but cut the sprint race plan to just three, like last year.

The compromise would require at least 28 votes out of 30 to be approved, meaning three teams seeking an increase in the budget limit could block the deal from happening.

Steiner, meanwhile, hopes a compromise can be reached.

"We have to lobby on the other side so that (the increase in the budget limit) doesn't happen," said Stenier.

"There is governance that will solve that problem in my opinion."