Scuderia Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto disclosed that the Italian team may walk away from F1 due to the ongoing budget cap debate. Binotto warned that a further reduction to the cap could force Ferrari to take extreme measures. F1 is the midst of a war between the top teams and the midfield over the financials of the sport heading into the future.
F1’s budget cap debate
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As part of F1’s original financial spending cap, the amount stood at $175M for each team. In a nutshell, this amount is the sport’s budget cap when it comes to anything related to car development. However, due to the recent developments, all teams are facing a financial crisis that directly affects car development and teams’ working.
To mitigate the effect of the financial problem and bridge the gap to the top 3, several smaller and midfield teams are proposing a revised cap. Smaller teams are pushing for a cap somewhere around $100 – $125M. As expected, the bigger teams are opposing the change, citing a multitude of reasons. Mainly, the fact that most of these teams also supply engines to customer teams and also the risk of layoffs.
According to the latest reports, all teams have agreed to lower the cap to $150M. But the smaller teams are still pushing for a bigger reduction which has resulted in a standoff. Recently, Binotto hinted that the Scuderia could walk away from the sport if the budget cap didn’t meet their expectations. As extreme as it sounds, Ferrari has pulled a stunt like this in the past. The Maranello outfit threatened to leave in late 2018 over the upcoming F1 regulations.
Binotto threatens Ferrari exit
Speaking to The Guardian, Mattia said:
“The $145m level is already a new and demanding request compared to what was set out last June.
“It cannot be attained without further significant sacrifices, especially in terms of our human resources. If it was to get even lower, we would not want to be put in a position of having to look at other further options for deploying our racing DNA.”
“F1, we have all sorts of teams with different characteristics,”
“They operate in different countries, under different legislation and with their own ways of working. Therefore it is not simple and straightforward to make structural changes simply by cutting costs in a linear fashion”
While this certainly isn’t an empty threat, Ferrari needs F1 as much as F1 needs Ferrari.
