Monisha Kaltenborn thinks that F1's new owners are sympathetic to the idea of a fairer distribution of power among the teams.

So disillusioned with the way prize money and decision-making power is divvied up at present, Sauber and Force India lodged a complaint to the EU over a year ago.

Sauber chief Kaltenborn has now told Deutschlandfunk radio that the process is well underway, including a dialogue with the Commission.

"I am confident that the EU is looking very closely at this, because in principle, the answer to the question of whether the competition is distorted or not is relatively simple," she said.

"We will continue to push this forward and we think that something will happen."

A key to that could be the arrival of Liberty Media, as US media tycoon John Malone's group is in the process of buying and taking over the commercial rights.

"Together with Force India, we have already started to discuss it with Liberty," Kaltenborn revealed.

"For the first time, we have an owner who comes from the media sector, and someone who has made very successful investments in other areas.

"In some series, the smaller teams have certain rights which demonstrate the importance of these smaller teams, so I believe that a good dialogue will develop."

Sauber finished second from bottom in the 2016 constructors' standings.