Ross Brawn has hit back at what he called "personally offensive" claims by Ferrari chairman Sergio Marchionne that he was trying to dumb down Formula 1.
The Briton, who was technical director at the Scuderia during Michael Schumacher's era of dominance, is now the managing director of motorsport at Liberty Media and is currently developing a set of regulations for implementation in 2021.
His first proposals for changes to the engines drew ire from the current manufacturers, however, with Marchionne threatening to pull Ferrari out of the sport claiming the simpler layout with more standardisation attacked the DNA of F1.
"F1 has a long history of incredible competition," Brawn told Radio Sport New Zealand and was quoted by ESPN. "It's the pinnacle of motorsport. Why would we choose to damage that?
"I find it personally offensive when people accuse me of dumbing down the sport. We know if we did that we'd spoil the sport at its core and we would spoil the commercial basis of the sport as well."
And it is the commercial aspect that Brawn has in mind as he tries to reduce the spiralling amounts top teams spend and also make F1 more financially viable for the smaller outfits down the grid.
"The teams at the top are probably spending two or three times what they were spending five or six years ago," he continued. "You wouldn't say five or six years ago that the sport was dumb.
"We have to help the teams at the top recognise and realise that to have a sport for the future we've got to rebase the commercial revenues for the teams.
"We've got to rebase the amount of scope that the teams are allowed to explore technically in order to give a more exciting competition."
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This week in Bahrain sees another meeting between the major stakeholders with proposals to be put forward, and the highly-respected figure believes that, for all of Ferrari's bluster, the general direction with future rules is already "well supported by the teams" and simply sees politics as the main hurdle.
"When you've got three or four areas that are being hotly debated, sometimes it colours or clouds other issues," Ross explained.
"Governance is a sensitive topic, the commercial revenue to the teams is a sensitive topic. Budget control, which is something we're very enthusiastic about, is a sensitive topic.
"There are always vested interests," he added. "It's not just a simple technical problem."
