Haas 'lobbying against' F1 sprint cost cap increase

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner has revealed his team is lobbying "on the other side" to prevent its rivals from gaining a financial advantage from sprint races.

F1 trialled short format Saturday races at three events last year to a mixed reception and the sport had hoped to double this number to six in the coming year.

However, McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown revealed in January that "a couple of teams, and one team in particular" were demanding a "ridiculous" $5million budget cap increase to cover off the cost of potential accident damage."

Even with the introduction of a cost cap in F1 last year and its reduction to $140m for the coming campaign, some teams are unable to spend at the limit.

Asked if he was disappointed that some teams were seeking to gain a financial advantage through the format, Steiner said: "I wouldn't say it's disappointing. They are trying to do the job they can do.

"If you have got money, the thing you need is a bigger budget cap, and when you haven't got the money, what you try to do is get more.

"So I think they are just doing their job. It doesn't disappoint me but we've the governance in place that will deal with it.

"We have to do lobby on the other side that it doesn't happen.

"I think they are trying to use their power to move something that will help them to perform, which is being able to spend more money.

"Some teams just need more money. The budget cap is not the problem, it's actually caught the problem.

"The majority of people have got that problem, but there is governance in place to sort the problem out in my opinion."

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