F1 teams can't "run our businesses" without 2021 clarity

A meeting of the Strategy Group, where ideas are discussed and voted on by F1, the FIA and the six top teams, will be held next Tuesday in London.

This will be followed by a meeting of the F1 commission, where votes are undertaken involving all stakeholders.

FIA president Jean Todt has indicated that progress has been made on 2021, and said that will be apparent at the meetings.

“We need clarity, because there is a lot of talk going on,” said Steiner when asked by Motorsport.com. “I think now Chase [Carey, F1 CEO] is ready to present something to us, and let’s see what he presents, and go from there.

"I don’t know what is in there. We all talk between each other’s backs, so I don’t know in the end what F1 has come up with.”

Asked if the wait for hard information, given that teams need to know what rules they will run under, was frustrating, he said: “I don't know if 'frustrating' is the right word.

"We need to get to the point where we know what is going to happen in the future, otherwise we cannot run our business.

“You cannot start to develop if you have no technical regulations. For us everything starts at least a year or 18 months early. Now we are only 21 months away from that season.

"So you haven’t got a lot of time left. I think they realise that, and that's why they’ve said, ‘We need to come out with something'.’

“But there are a lot of things, the governance, the budget cap, the technical regulations. If we get it all done in one meeting, good for us. Yeah, good luck.”

Asked if teams were being informed about some elements of the technical package – the recent gearbox cassette tender is one of the few details in the public domain – Steiner said: “Yeah, but we are hearing about it. It’s not a done deal.

"Nothing's a done deal. No package. Hopefully we get something on March 26.”