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Despite the 2021 regulations introducing a budget cap to keep the teams' competitiveness closer together, McLaren boss Zak Brown believes only half the grid will reach the cap next year.
From 2021 onward, Formula 1 teams will be limited to spending $175-million per season, though certain costs like driver salaries and those for the three highest-paid company executives will be exempt.
Some teams, such as Renault and Racing Point, thought the cap was still too high, something which Brown agrees on, but he understands the need to compromise for all ten teams.
And he expects half of those outfits to max out the budget cap from 2021 - McLaren have already announced that they will be one of them.
A great first step
Brown is quoted by Autosport: "I think I'd like to see the cost cap at what was originally proposed, but when you're trying to get 10 teams together, there's obviously compromises that need to be made.
"So I think it's a great first step. I think we're getting substantially outspent. If you look at the grid order, it pretty much lines up by who spends what. And when the cost cap comes in, I think you'll have five teams running at the cost cap, and therefore anything can happen within those five."
READ: McLaren hopes 2021 budget cap will close gap to Top 3 teams
But Brown thinks it will take a few years for the cap to have an affect on F1's pecking order.
He said: "I'm excited for '20 but realistically the grid will probably look pretty familiar. I'm really excited for '21 because who knows what that's going to look like.
"I do think it's going to take a couple of years for the cost cap to have much real impact, because people are going to be spending now for '21. So I think it's going to be '22 or '23 before you see the real impact of the cost cap."
