F1 Looking to Further Reduce the Budget Cap Due to Coronavirus Outbreak

The coronavirus pandemic is ravaging the entire world for months now. In light of this, F1 has the opportunity to drastically cut costs. According to Auto Motor und Sport, Chase Carey and Jean Todt are working on reducing the $175 million budget cap for 2021.

“It is a historic opportunity,” former driver Christian Danner said. “The best thing is to set the budget cap according to the old Mosley plan,” he said, referring to former FIA president Max Mosley’s original idea of a EUR 40 million cap.”

For the moment, F1 suspended development on the all-new cars for 2022. To achieve this, they outlawed wind tunnel development until February 2021. However, McLaren is the only team allowed to make substantial changes to the 2020 car. This is largely owing to the team’s migration to a new engine.

McLaren team boss Andreas Seidl confirmed that the newest measures have no impact on the impending switch to Mercedes power. This explains why the Woking outfit is granted some leeway.

How much will the F1 budget be affected?

F1 managing director, Ross Brawn insisted that enforcing the $175m budget cap could be easier if the teams “self-police”. In other words, a combination of self-policing and whistleblowing. This will ensure that the rules are not flouted at all.

“What happens classically in Formula 1 is there is a constant circulation of personnel around the teams,” he told Motorsport Week, “and most of the indiscretions in Formula 1 have come out because someone has moved from one team to another and told them.”

“Every team knows that they will never retain any fraudulent activity. Because someone will leave next week or the week after and they’ll take that information with them.”

Ross Brawn even cited the example of Premier League giants, Manchester City. The club recently paid a heavy price for flouting the financial regulations. As a result, they got banned from the Champions League for the next two season.

He concluded, “For us, that’s a good thing because it shows there will be consequences. Especially if a team fraudulently breaches the cost cap regulations”