Home

F1

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

Published 03/25/2020, 5:33 AM EDT

Follow Us

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.

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

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?

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

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.”

Trending

Get instantly notified of the hottest F1 stories via Google! Click on Follow Us and Tap the Blue Star.

Follow Us

“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.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

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”

SHARE THIS ARTICLE :

Written by:

Dhruv George

14,320Articles

One take at a time

Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.
Show More>