Racing Point CEO Reveals a Minor Adjustment That Could Save F1 Teams Millions
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Racing Point CEO Otmar Szafnauer believes F1 teams could save a lot of money with a small tweak in operations. Szafnauer claims teams can benefit greatly if the sport endorses the carrying over of parts from one season to the next. In fact, the Romanian claimed teams could save close to $10m if they’re shrewd enough with reuse.
The minor change that saves F1 teams millions
Smaller teams in F1 have it rough as it is. However, without any racing so far, it doesn’t make life any easier for the midfield. Teams’ finances take a massive hit as they don’t necessarily get paid by sponsors without competing. However, F1 deciding to postpone the 2021 regulations to 2022 is a lifeline for the smaller teams.
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As per F1’s official announcement, teams may reuse the 2020 chassis heading into 2021 with an optional aero upgrade. Speaking to Auto Moto und Sport, Szafnauer explained the savings in carrying over components to another season.
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“We took an old chassis into the next season three times,”
“And not only that. In the difficult years, the suspension and the gearbox also remained the same.
“If you can take the old chassis, you can save up to a million and a half pounds. [if] you add the transmission and crash structures, it can be between three and five million.
“If you push things to the limit, up to ten million pounds are possible.”
With teams getting no meaningful running this season, they have very little to go on for development upgrades. Without competing in a single race, teams are pretty much clueless on the effectiveness of a single component on the car. As a result, this hampers developing upgrades due to lack of real-life data.
“It would be the stupidest thing to start the wind tunnel now and continue developing blindly. We don’t even know how our first upgrade would have worked.”
Szafnauer also claimed that teams would reuse the same cars as Melbourne for the 2021 season with a minor upgrade, should there be no running,
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“If there are no races at all, you’ll have to race next year with the 2020 Melbourne cars with an aero upgrade.”
Will fairer finances become a reality?
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F1’s 2021 regulations included a huge financial change to the sport. As a result, teams would be forced to implement a cost cap of $175m to prevent the bigger teams from overspending and gaining an advantage. Many are sceptical of the move and whether it will actually result in a fairer environment.
“One rule has to apply to everyone here. If not enough savings are made, the small teams have even more disadvantages,” said Szafnauer.
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