Formula 1 teams and bosses are to meet next week to discuss a proposal to reduce the sport’s budget cap to $130m (£104.6m) by 2022.
A meeting on Thursday broke up without agreement but all sides described it as positive and constructive.
The main discussion was over a plan to set a cap of $145m (£116.6m) next year and lower it to $130m in 2022.
A sliding scale for aerodynamic research was also discussed, with less successful teams allowed more.
That was an idea put forward by the top teams, who presented it as an elegant way to level the field, in a similar fashion to the draft in American football in the US.
In the NFL, the teams at the bottom of the league are given the first pick of players being promoted from the college game each year.
The idea in F1 would be that the team who finished first in the championship would be allowed to do the least aerodynamic research the following year and the team who finished last the most.
Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull had proposed that this should also be linked to the budget cap – so they could spend more money but would be allowed less aerodynamic research.
F1 bosses rejected that idea, preferring a single cap for all teams, but want to push forward with the aerodynamic handicapping system.
Insiders say that it is likely to take several more weeks to come to a final agreement on the level of the budget cap for the next two seasons and beyond.
The discussions have arisen out of an acceptance within F1 that the coronavirus crisis has put the sport in a vulnerable position.
The lack of racing means an inevitable drop in revenue because of the disruption of the sport’s main income streams of race-hosting fees, broadcasting rights and sponsorship.
The first nine races of the season have all been called off and it is not yet known when the championship can start and how many races might be held.
A number of measures have already been adopted, including postponing a major regulation change by a year to 2022 and forcing teams to race the same cars next year as this.
Teams have agreed informally to lower the budget cap to $150m. A cap of $175m (£137.9m) was agreed last autumn and is already in the regulations to be introduced from next season.
Now there is a drive to lower the cap even further, with McLaren arguing that the sport is in “a very fragile state” and that up to four teams could pull out if major changes are not made.
However, Ferrari remain the strongest opponents of lowering of the budget cap below $150m.
They say that Italian law imposes strict restrictions on companies making redundancies, that they will already be forced into significant job losses at $150m and that to go any lower would be a major problem for them.
They also question the wisdom of lowering the cap further for 2022, when the new rules mean that there can be no carryover of parts, so costs will inevitably rise.
An insider from one of the independent teams said they felt the talks were “going in the right direction” and were optimistic of their position prevailing.
But Ferrari continue to emphasise the need to think carefully before taking what they would consider as drastic steps and believe considerably more time should be spent discussion the potential impact of the proposals.